


My World, My Love

by BritHistorian



Category: Hello Venus, K-pop, K.Will (Musician) RPF, TWICE (Band), Weki Meki (Band)
Genre: Bad Matchmaking, Contracts, F/F, F/M, First Date, First Love, Gen, Matchmaking, Secret Crush, Secret Relationship
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-12-06
Updated: 2019-07-31
Packaged: 2019-09-12 22:42:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 18
Words: 32,042
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16880619
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BritHistorian/pseuds/BritHistorian
Summary: Life is difficult when your agency has your group under a dating ban.  Because let's be realistic:  It doesn't mean you're not going to date.  You're just going to have to be smarter about it.  And if you're not straight, you have to be even smarter than that.As if all that wasn't hard enough, what do you do when you've found the girl of your gay dreams but you can't tell whether or not she's gay?  How do you handle it if she's a member of your group and you have to do skinships with her every day?  Can you figure out a solution before you explode?This is the situation Weki Meki's Sei finds herself in when she falls for Lucy, the group's maknae.





	1. Chapter 1

Sei was out for a run when a woman stepped out onto the sidewalk holding a stack of flyers. She'd usually just wave and run past, but something about this woman made her stop and take a flyer.

"We're opening a new vegan restaurant," she said, "Our grand opening will be this weekend! You should come!"

"If I have time, I will," she said. She thought that a new restaurant in the neighborhood serving healthy food would be a good thing, especially if she could convince some of her members to go with her. "Lua might go - she's usually up to try something new. Suyeon would have, but now that she's dating Moonbin she tries to sneak off and see him whenever she gets free time. Lucy said the other day she wanted to try eating healthier, so she might want to go."

She ran down the street until she got back to the Fantagio dorm. She walked around the building a couple of times to cool down before she went in. Once inside, she walked down the hall to Weki Meki's apartment and unlocked the door. In the apartment, Lucy was watching the microwave, waiting for something to be done cooking.

"Hi Lucy," Sei said, "what's cooking?"

"Instant noodles," Lucy said. She held up the package. "Kim chi flavor! You want some?"

Normally Sei would rather eat something healthier than instant noodles, but she was hungry after her run and didn't feel like taking time to cook something else. "That sounds delicious," she said. She opened the cabinet and got out a bowl, putting it on the counter next to Lucy's. Then she got down a glass and went to the refrigerator to get some water. She filled her glass and drank half of it while waiting for the alarm on the microwave. She watched as Lucy took the noodles out of the microwave and divided it between the bowls. Lucy opened the seasoning packet, poured some of it over each bowl of noodles. She carried the bowls to the table and sat down.

Sei sat down opposite Lucy, pulled two pairs of chopsticks out of the glass of them in the middle of the table and handed one pair to Lucy. They started eating their noodles, slurping joyfully. After a few bites, Lucy asked "So how was your run?"

Sei put down her bowl and pulled the flyer out of her shorts pocket. "It was good," she said. "I ran into a woman who's opening a new restaurant in the neighborhood! We should go sometime - you said you wanted to start eating healthier!"

Lucy took the flyer from Sei's hand and looked it over. "M-maybe?" she said hesitantly.

Sei paused with her chopsticks halfway to her mouth. "That doesn't sound very confident," she said. "What's wrong?"

Lucy pointed out a word on the flyer. "It's a vegan restaurant. If I'm going out to eat, I want meat."

"Vegan chefs are really creative, though," Sei said. "I bet it'll be really good, even though there's no meat."

Lucy looked doubtful. "Maybe," she said. "I'll give it a try, but I won't promise I'll like it."

"That's all I can ask," Sei said, slurping another mouthful of noodles.

For the next few minutes they ate in silence except for the slurping of their noodles. Looking around the apartment, Sei paused between bites to ask "Where's everyone else?"

"Elly and Lua are down doing laundry," Lucy began. "Yoojung and Doyeon are in the small bedroom, Rina's in the big bedroom playing games on her phone, and Suyeon went for a walk - certainly not to see Moonbin." Suyeon and Astro's Moonbin had met back in the spring when they recorded a duet. Singing together had progressed to texting and talking on the phone, which had progressed to clandestine meetups whenever they could arrange it. Weki Meki still had at least two years to go on the "no dating" clause of their contract (assuming the agency didn't decide to extend it), but youth and hormones didn't necessarily fit to agency schedules. Suyeon and Moonbin were a couple. Lua was dating someone in another group but wouldn't say who. Sei thought that Elly dating someone, but Elly would never say anything about it. Yoojung and Doyeon had been a couple since their time together in I.O.I., so that left Sei, Lucy, and Rina as the singletons in Weki Meki.

"Certainly not for lack of trying," Sei thought as she drank the last of her broth. Sei had had a crush on Lucy since they'd first met, but if Lucy had noticed, she hadn't acknowledged it. She'd do skinships with Sei whenever they were out in public, but once they were in private, that all stopped. "Maybe my gaydar's broken and she's really straight," Sei thought. That was a preferable option to Lucy being gay but not being interested in Sei. Regardless, Sei was glad to have Lucy as a friend - of all their members, she was the one Sei was closest to. She just. . . sometimes. . . wished they could be something more.

Sei was snapped out of her reverie by Lucy asking "Are you done?" and reaching out for Sei's bowl. Sei handed her the bowl and Lucy went to the sink to clean up. Sei watched her all the way - she never got tired of looking at Lucy.

"I'll wash the dishes," Lucy said, "and you can dry and put them away after your shower."

"You cooked and you're doing this dishes?" Sei asked. "You're going to spoil me!"

"You can make it up to me by watching my dramas with me tonight."

"Sure thing!" Sei as she went to get a towel out of the closet. "What are we watching?"

"I recorded the last three episodes of 'What's Wrong with Secretary Kim' and I was hoping to get caught up tonight." Lucy put the last clean bowl in the drainer and turned around and leaned against the counter while talking to Sei. Sei couldn't help but notice that this made Lucy's legs look even longer than they actually are.

"Stop it, Sei," she said to herself as she gathered up her pajamas. "There's no use making yourself crazy by wanting what you can't have." She didn't notice that Doyeon had come out and heard her say this.

"What's that?" Doyeon asked.

"Oh. . . nothing," Sei said, "um. . . Unnie, can I talk to you about something tomorrow?"

"Sure," Doyeon said. "Wake me up early and we can talk before tomorrow's promotions. Now you'd better hurry and get showered before Lucy bursts." And with that, Doyeon grabbed a couple of bottles of water from the fridge and headed back into the small bedroom.

Sei hurried through her shower and only took time to towel dry her hair. When she came back into the common room, Lucy was waiting eagerly for her, practically quivering with excitement. They curled up on the couch and Lucy started the shows.

Sei was so aware of every place that she was incidentally touching Lucy that she had a hard time focusing on the show. She pulled out a leave-in conditioner that she'd brought with her and started combing it through her hair. It was kind of awkward without a mirror, but since they'd died her hair red she had to be extra careful to protect it.

"You're missing big chunks of your hair," Lucy said. "Let me do that for you."

"No, I've got it," Sei said.

"No you don't," Lucy contradicted her. She had Sei sit on the floor in front of her and started coming the conditioner through her hair. Since Lucy was able to see what she was doing, applying the conditioner went much faster with her doing it.

"All done," she said. "Now just lean back and watch the show." Sei leaned back against Lucy's calves, doing her best to focus on the show. After a few minutes, Elly and Lua came in and started watching the show with them while folding laundry. As much as she had been enjoying the time alone with Lucy, Sei was kind of glad to have some other members around - as much as she was enjoying being alone with Lucy, having the other members there deflected some of Lucy's attention away from her, making it easier for her to relax.

After five minutes before curfew, Suyeon came back. The others teased her about having been out with Moonbin, but Sei couldn't help feeling a little jealous of her: At least Suyeon was getting to date the person she wanted to instead of having to pretend she wasn't interested. After letting the teasing go on for a few minutes, Suyeon shut them all up with the reminder "Big day of promos tomorrow. Everyone go get some sleep!"

Suyeon knocked on the door of the small bedroom and gave Doyeon and Yoojung a slow count of 10 to get decent before she went in to her bed. The rest of the group went to their beds in the big bedroom - which wasn't actually any bigger than the small room, it just had more beds in it. Rina had the lower bunk beneath Sei bunk, and was already asleep when everyone else went to bed. Lucy slept in the top bunk of the bed next to Sei and Rina's, close enough that Sei could reach out and touch her if she wanted to. Lua had the bunk under Lucy, and Elly slept in the bottom bunk of the third bed.

"Good night everybody," Sei said as she pulled up her blankets. Because she had rolled over toward the wall, she couldn't see Lucy lying there watching her as she fell asleep. Just before she fell asleep, Sei remembered she was supposed to get up early the next morning to talk with Doyeon. She rolled over and set an alarm on her phone, then promptly fell asleep. Lucy reached across the gap between their beds and pulled up Sei's blanket for her, which had fallen down when she rolled over.


	2. Chapter 2

Sei woke up at the first beep of her phone's alarm. She scrambled to turn off the alarm before it woke up any of her roommates, then quietly climbed down the ladder from her bed and left the room. She was going to go into the small bedroom to wake up Doyeon when she saw a light on in the kitchen.

"Maybe Doyeon-unnie already woke up and she's in the kitchen making some tea," Sei thought to herself. "Better check before I risk waking up either of the other unnies in the small bedroom."

Walking quietly so as not to wake anyone else, Sei quietly walked into the kitchen. In the kitchen doorway she stopped suddenly, frozen in her tracks, when she saw who was in the kitchen: It was Lucy, leaning against the counter eating a tangerine while she waited for the kettle to heat up.

"Good morning, unnie," Lucy said, smiling at Sei.

Sei quickly covered her surprise and went into the kitchen. "Good morning!" she said, truly happy to see Lucy even if it meant not getting to have her conversation with Doyeon this morning. "What are doing up so early?"

Lucy shrugged. "I couldn't sleep anymore, so I got up early. I'm excited about the promos today. How about you?"

Sei put a piece of her tangerine in her mouth and chewed. "I'm actually a little nervous," she said. And she was, just not for the reason Lucy would think. Sei wasn't nervous about the day's promos. She was finding herself getting nervous about talking to Lucy. Which was silly: Lucy was her good friend. Maybe even her best friend. But ever since she recognized what she was feeling about Lucy, she found herself getting nervous around her. And suddenly she realized she'd been silent for the better part of a minute, and Lucy was staring at her waiting for her to talk and she just couldn't and. . . she was saved by the kettle whistling.

The activity of taking down teacups, choosing what kind of tea they wanted, and pouring the water, gave Sei a moment to mentally reset. "Yeah," she said, once the preparation of tea was finished, "I'm a little bit nervous about the promos today. I don't know why." She laughed nervously.

"You'll do fine!" Lucy said. "Interviewers love you, and Ki-Lings love you!"

Just then Doyeon came around the corner into the kitchen, her eyes still bleary from sleep. "Sei? I thought you were going to wake me up to talk about something."

"Oh, um. . ." Obviously she couldn't talk to Doyeon about her crush on Lucy with Lucy standing right there. "I got caught up in making tea with Lucy and forgot. Anyway, there's not time before promos now - we'll have to talk about it another time. Do you want me to make you a cup of tea, unnie?"

"No thanks," Doyeon said, stretching and yawning. "I'm going to go get a shower and try to wake up for today's promos."

As Doyeon left, Lucy asked Sei "What did you need to talk to Doyeon-unnie about? Is it something I can help with?"

Thinking quickly, Sei shook her head. "No, it's just I've seen her do some things with her makeup that I think would work well with my new hair and I wanted to see if I could get her to show me."

Lucy nodded. "Yeah, Doyeon-unnie's good with makeup." She drank the rest of her tea and put the cup in the sink. "I'm going to go get dressed and get started on my makeup."

"Okay. I'm going to finish my breakfast and then we should start waking up the other members."

"Sounds good," Lucy said. "Just don't take too long. Suyeon and Yoojung always take forever to get ready."

^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^

Three hours later, the girls were in a radio studio, earphones on and microphones in front of them.

"We're chatting live with Weki Meki!" the host said excitedly. Looking around at all the girls, he said "I know this is a common question in interviews, but it's a lot of fun: If you were a guy, which one of your bandmates would you want to date, and why. Sei, let's start with you."

"Ummm, if I was a guy, I would want to date. . . " Sei bought herself a moment to think by repeating the question back. "Well, I'm kind of scatterbrained and disorganized, so I'd need to date someone organized. I think I'd better date Suyeon-unnie!"

Suyeon looked surprised. 'Me? I'm not really that organized - it only seems that way because Doyeon keeps track of things and tries to make me look good so no one will want her to be the leader."

"You're selling yourself short, Ji Suyeon-unnie," Doyeon said. "You're a great leader and we're lucky to have you." The rest of the members chimed in with their agreement. "But if Sei wants to date someone really organized, she should date Lucy. Even though she's the maknae, Lucy keeps track of all our promos and performances while also keeping track of all her schoolwork. Yes, she should definitely date Lucy." There was something indefinable in Doyeon's eyes when she looked at Sei while saying this. Sei wasn't sure if she meant more than she was saying or not - and obviously she couldn't ask in the middle of a live radio interview! She just had to swallow her nervousness and keep going.

"So how 'bout it Lucy?" Sei asked. "If I was a guy, would you date me?"

"Well, I've always said I wanted someone who'd take care of me, and Sei would definitely do that - she'd make sure I exercised and ate healthy food. I wouldn't mind having to be the organized one in the couple." She smiled at Sei. Even though this was just a hypothetical interview question, not something real, it made Sei's stomach flutter.

"OK," the host said, "it sounds like Sei and Lucy would make a great couple." (Sei's stomach fluttered again.) "Stay with us until after the break to find out who the other members of Weki Meki would want to date!"

Sei's stomach kept fluttering. Every time Lucy looked at her, it fluttered more. Had Lucy figured out the way she felt about her?


	3. Chapter 3

The members of Weki Meki were sitting around chatting - they needed to get to sleep so they'd be rested for the filming of the video for "All I Want" the next day, but they were all too excited to go to bed. They were interrupted from teasing Suyeon about how excited she must be to get to see Moonbin again when Lucy's phone beeped for about the 10th time that night.

"OOoooh," Elly said, "sounds like Lucy's got an admirer!"

Lucy blushed. "It's MJ. He's excited getting to see me tomorrow." MJ was one of Moonbin's fellow Astro members who Lucy had recorded a duet with earlier in the year. "I thought he was excited when we first met, but that was nothing compared to this. He's like a little puppy!"

The others started teasing Lucy about her admirer, which only made her blush more. The only one who didn't take part in the teasing was Sei. She quietly left the group, thinking no one even noticed, and went to her bed. She plugged earbuds in her ears, turned on some music, and lay there listening to it, trying not to think about Lucy. When she felt the tears start to overflow her eyes and run down her face, she angrily wiped them away and rolled over to face the wall. She knew she had no reason to think Lucy would be hers - she didn't even know for sure whether or not Lucy was gay - but it still hurt to think of her with somebody else.

^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^

The next morning Sei was one of the last ones to wake up. She was coming back from the shower when she ran into Lua.

"You'd better hurry up and get dressed for the video," Sei said. "Manager-nim will be here to pick us up soon!"

Lua looked confused. "What are you talking about? This is what I'm wearing for the video!" Lua looked down at the white sweater and shorts she was wearing. "I think I'll stand out with all the red and green everyone else will be wearing."

Sei let out a little laugh. All the other members had chosen the most elegant outfits they could come up with, wanting to look good when they were on screen together with their sunbae-nims. Leave it to Lua to try to bring back their sporty aesthetic from the "I Don't Like Your Girlfriend" video.

"Oh, I definitely think you'll stand out," Sei said. If there was a little bit of snark in her voice, Lua didn't notice. As Lua skipped off to the living room to wait for everyone else, Sei headed to her room to get dressed. As she walked along, Doyeon fell in walking beside her.

"Hey, are you okay?" Doyeon asked.

Sei looked confused. "What are you talking about?"

Doyeon rolled her eyes. "You were the first one to bed last night, and you didn't tell anyone you were going. That's not like you. You're never the first one to bed, and if anyone else is still up when you go to bed, you always give hugs to all your members who are still awake. So I'm asking: Are you okay?"

"Suyeon's right," Sei said. "You would make a good leader - you notice everything!"

Doyeon laughed. "I also noticed that you avoided my question twice. I'm going to be watching you today, and I'm here if you need me."

Sei nodded. "Thank you, unni." She turned away from Doyeon and went into her room, where she almost ran into Lucy.

"Sei-unni!" Lucy said brightly. "You'd better hurry and get dressed - Manager-nim will be here soon!"

Sei took out the red and white dress she'd chosen for the day and started getting dressed. Lucy spun around in front of her and asked "What do you think? How do I look?"

Sei's mouth went dry and her heart was in her throat. She didn't trust herself to answer at first, so she bought a little time by looking Lucy slowly up and down. Coughing softly, she said "You look beautiful. Very grown up."

Lucy's smile widened and her face brightened even more. She kissed Sei on the cheek. "Thank you, Sei-unni! You always say the sweetest things," she said, and left Sei alone in the room to finish getting dressed.

Sei's cheek felt like it was on fire where Lucy had kissed it. She smiled slightly as she finished getting her dress on. Maybe everyone was wrong about Lucy and MJ - maybe they were just friends. Maybe there was still hope.

^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^

Filming the video was a lot of fun - Sei had never worked on a video with all her sunbae-nims before. There were so many people that there was always something happening. It wasn't like a regular video shoot where there was a lot of time spent waiting on the crew to get ready while the band got bored. Even when she wasn't in front of the camera, Sei never had time to get bored - there was always someone interesting around to talk to, something going on. It would have been perfect except that every time Sei tried to talk to Lucy, she found MJ there talking to her.

When lunch time came, the production company set up tables and had ordered box lunches for everyone. Sei grabbed her box lunch and tried to find Lucy, but by the time she found her in the rush of people, she was already sitting with MJ. Sei sniffed and tried not to let on that it bothered her. She found a seat by Lime, the main rapper for HELLOVENUS, and for the next hour totally forgot about Lucy. Lime had a great sense of humor and told so many great stories about her time in K-pop - she'd been in HELLOVENUS since before Sei was trainee. Sei remembered having had a HELLOVENUS poster on her bedroom wall before she left to become a trainee. If she hadn't been so preoccupied with Lucy, Sei might have noticed that Lime was flirting with her shamelessly. As it was, Lime was having such a great day that she didn't even notice that Sei didn't notice her flirting - she just thought Sei was playing hard to get and, enjoying the chase, flirted harder.

As lunchtime came to an end, they all cleared up the area and started getting ready to film again. Sei looked up from the trashcan just in time to see Lucy and MJ coming back from a walk. They were standing close together and he had his hand on the small of her back. He took her coat and went to hang it up. Sei felt her vision start to waver and knew that if she didn't find a place to be alone soon, everyone would see her crying. She didn't want that, so she quickly ducked into an alcove she had noticed behind the tree. She was crying quietly when she saw Alice and Jin Jin come stand by the Christmas tree, obviously talked heatedly about something. There was no way for Sei to get away, besides the fact that she was still crying, so she just made herself as small as possible in the alcove and hoped they didn't notice her.

"I'm telling you," Alice was saying, "she's not interested in him."

"Then why doesn't she say something?" Jin Jin responded.

"Because she's too polite," Alice snapped. Jin Jin mumbled something that Sei couldn't hear, but soon Alice interrupted him and went on talking. "I'm giving you a chance to take action because he's your member, but if you don't put a stop to it, I will. Just think how it will look if your sunbae-nim, a woman, has to take action because you wouldn't or couldn't. Just think about that."

And with that, Alice stormed off. Jin Jin stood staring silently after her for a moment then walked purposefully away, apparently to go find his member. Once she was sure neither of them would notice her, Sei dried her face and came out from behind the tree. She looked around as she got ready for the afternoon's filming, wondering which of the girls was having to put up with unwanted attention from one of the guys in Astro. Since it was Alice who had confronted Jin Jin about it, she figured it was one of her members. She spent the afternoon watching the HELLOVENUS members to see if she could figure out who it was, but didn't see anything. Apparently whatever Jin Jin had said to his member had put a stop to everything.

When the filming ended, everyone said good-bye and got ready to head back to their dorms (or in HELLOVENUS's case, apartments). There was a last minute flurry of hugs and exchanges of phone numbers, then it was time to go.

As Sei climbed into Weki Meki's van, she overheard a snippet of Suyeon and Doyeon talking.

"I talked to Alice at lunch," Suyeon said. "Did the unwanted attention stop after that?"

"I think so," Doyeon said, then motioned for Suyeon to be quiet.

As she settled into a back seat by the window, Sei put in her headphones, turned on her music, and thought about what she had just heard. Apparently at the same time as Alice was telling Jin Jin to stop one of his members from paying unwanted attention, she was paying unwanted attention to a Weki Meki member. Sei thought about deleting Alice's name from her phone, but stopped upon reflecting on how rude it would be to treat a sunbae that way, regardless of how badly the sunbae behaved.

But which Weki Meki member had Alice been harassing? If Sei couldn't do anything against Alice, she could at least comfort her victim. Sei knew that she'd barely talked to Alice before lunch, and she guessed that Alice would know that Suyeon was straight, and that no one had a chance of breaking up Doyeon and Yoojung. Then it hit her - she remembered seeing Alice talking to Lua several times over the course of the morning. That must have been it! She made a mental note to check up on her friend when they got back to their dorm, not realizing how her inadvertent eavesdropping had caused her to totally misunderstand the situation.


	4. Chapter 4

On the way home from the video shoot, Manager-nim had Suyeon use her phone and the band credit card to order chicken delivery for that night's dinner. Sei was so hungry that she didn't even care that fried chicken wasn't the healthiest dinner they could be eating. Her mouth watered just thinking of it.

They got back to the dorm to discover they'd timed things perfectly - they'd been in their apartment for less than a minute when the chicken delivery man knocked on the door. Suyeon took the package from him, thanked him as he shut the door on his way out, and then everyone gathered around her as she stood at the table and unpacked the delicious things she had ordered.

Once they had all filled their plates, they dispersed into small groups scattered around the apartment and sat around eating and talking. Sei managed to get Lua alone for a moment and asked her "Are you okay?"

Lua nodded. "I'm fine. Why wouldn't I be?"

Sei got a serious look on her face. "I heard about this morning," she said solemnly. She didn't want to say any more than that - if Lua was upset by what had happened, she didn't want to upset her further.

Lua thought back to this morning, when both Manager-nim and Suyeon had fussed at her for not dressing formally enough for the video shoot. She shrugged. "It wasn't the first time something like that happened, and it probably won't be the last."

Sei couldn't believe how calm Lua was being. "You're not upset about it?"

Lua thought for a moment. "I was a little upset at the time, but I'm not going to let it ruin my day."

Sei was so impressed by how brave Lua was being. She leaned over and gave her friend a hug. "Well, if you ever want to talk about it, I'm here for you."

Lua waved away Sei's concern. "It's over. It's in the past. I've already forgotten about it."

Sei nodded. She didn't know if she could forgive Alice as easily as Lua apparently had, but she vowed to try in order to keep the peace with their sunbaes. Maybe it was just a one-time thing and out of character for Alice.

Just then Lucy came over and sat down with them. "Wasn't today a fun day? I had a great time today."

Lucy's good mood was so infectious that Sei found herself smiling along with her. Even with the MJ situation, she was so happy that her friend was happy that she almost wasn't upset about the fact that Lucy was apparently dating someone other than her. She was still upset, but she managed to keep that on the inside, and she was genuinely happy for her friend.

"When do you think you'll see MJ again?" Sei asked.

A cloud passed over Lucy's face. "I don't know," she said. "I'll find a way to deal with that in the future."

Sei nodded and changed the subject, not wanting to spoil Lucy's good mood. She told some of the stories that Lime had told at lunch, and soon they were all laughing and enjoying themselves.

^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^

Over the next several days, Sei found herself really needing an unnie's advice. What did she do about the Lucy and MJ situation? Did she give in gracefully, never letting Lucy know how she felt about her? Or did she challenge MJ for Lucy's affection? And did her apparent attraction to MJ mean Lucy was straight, or did Sei still stand a chance?

Unfortunately, they were kept so busy with holiday promotions that Sei never had a chance for a private conversation with Doyeon or any of the other unnies (though Doyeon was the one she'd prefer to get advice from).

One afternoon there was a rumor that they'd get that evening off - which turned out to be true. Before Sei had a chance to arrange a private time with Doyeon, Lucy had come bounding up to her.

"Sei! Sei!" An excited Lucy was even more of a bundle of energy than a regular Lucy. "Since we've got tonight off, do you want to go check out that restaurant you were talking about last week?"

"Sure!" Sei said, wondering what had prompted Lucy's sudden excitement for vegan food. "We missed the grand opening, but that might be a good thing - they'll have had time to get used to the kitchens and the chefs should be at the top of their game."

"Yay! It sounds great!" Lucy skipped off to get back into position so they could finish dance practice.

As practice started up again, Sei kept stealing glances at Lucy. At one point she got so caught up in watching the maknae dance that she got out of place and ran into Doyeon.

"What's wrong?" Doyeon asked her as they got reset for the next run-through. "It's not like you to get out of place."

"I just got caught up in watching Lucy dance," Sei said.

Doyeon nodded. "We still have to have a conversation about that," she said. "Maybe during off-time this evening?"

Sei shook her head. "Lucy and I are going to check out the new vegan restaurant down the street."

"Just don't forget," Doyeon said, "you had questions and I probably have answers."

Just then the music started up again and they couldn't talk anymore.

^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^

Sei and Lucy were walking back to their dorm after dinner.

"That was actually good!" Lucy said.

"You don't have to sound so surprised," Sei said. "I told you vegan food can be good."

"I know you said it," Lucy said, "but I couldn't wrap my head around it until I experienced it for myself."

For the next several minutes they couldn't talk, thanks to the noise of a road construction crew. When it was quiet enough that they could talk again, Lucy was the one to reopen the conversation.

"Do you ever think about our dating clause?" she asked.

Sei was taken aback by this sudden change of topic. "What about it?"

"Well," Lucy said, "the agencies put all new idols under 'no dating' clauses, but so many people are violating them. Are the agencies just clueless, or do they not really care, or what?"

Sei thought for a moment. "I think so long as we keep it out of the eyes of the fans, they'll let us got away with things. We just can't be like Hyuna and E'Dawn and go on TV shouting 'we're dating!' the day after the label has just said 'they're not dating!'."

"But isn't that kind of like lying to the fans?" Lucy asked. "I don't like lying to the Ki-Lings."

Sei found her forehead wrinkling with the effort of thinking of answers to Lucy's questions - being an unnie was hard! "It's not like really, really lying," she finally said. "It's just. . . the fans have an idea of what we're like, and they'll think we're like that as long as we don't show them anything different, so we don't show them anything different, because they like being right."

Lucy laughed. "That gives me a headache just to think about! But I think I get what you're talking about." They were getting closer to the dorm by this time, and Lucy started walking more slowly. About half a block from the dorm, she stopped. "I'm not ready to go back inside yet," she said. She led Sei to the little park next to the dorm. "Let's stay out here for a while." She flopped down in the grass and looked up at the sky, watching the stars come out.

Sei sat down next to her. "So. . . what brings out all the questions about the dating clause. How you found someone you want to violate it with?"

"I think so," Lucy said. "Actually, I know so. It's just hard to decide - if you try dating someone and it doesn't work out, your relationship is changed forever. You can never go back to the way things were."

Sei had spent hours thinking about this very dilemma and was no closer to a satisfactory solution than she had been when she started. "But that's assuming it doesn't work out. And you never know about that. I mean, look at Doyeon and Yoojung - it must be wonderful to have someone who loves you that much."

They sat in silence for a while, looking at the stars. Finally, Sei asked "So. . . do I know this person you're thinking of dating?"

Lucy nodded. "I'd say you do," she said.

"Are you going to tell me who it is?"

Lucy shook her head.

Sei's eyes widened. "Do I even get a hint?"

Lucy shook her head again. "You'd guess any hint I gave you, so that'd be the same as telling you. You'll find out when everyone else does - when this person gets their courage up to ask to date me."

Sei shook her head in disbelief. She couldn't believe MJ hadn't asked Lucy to be his girlfriend yet - he'd had the perfect chance when they went for a walk after lunch on the day of filming "All I Want." After a pause, Sei asked "So if they ask you, you're going to say yes?"

"I'm planning to, and I can't think of anything that would make me change my mind," Lucy said, demonstrating the self-assurance that made her seem older than some of her unnies.

A shooting star flashed across the sky. Sei scowled at it. "Why tease me with a wish," she thought, "when I already know I can't have what I want."


	5. Chapter 5

It had been a hard day - nothing but dance practice and singing lessons, all day long. As always, Sei threw herself into the work, always giving 110%. When they got back to the dorm, she rushed to be one of the first ones to get a shower. When she came out, she found Lua typing something on her phone, a devious grin on her face.

"What are you doing with my phone?" Sei asked.

Lua looked up but made no attempt to hide what she was doing. "Your message alert kept going off while you were in the shower. I helped you out by taking care of it." She finished what she was typing and hit send with a flourish before handing the phone to Sei.

Sei looked down at her phone, trying to figure out what Lua had been doing.

"You'd better hurry," Sei said. "She'll be here to pick you up in about 10 minutes."

"Who?" Sei looked startled as she looked up from the screen and into Lua's eyes.

"Lime, of course." Lua said, as if the answer should have been totally obvious. "By the way, we think you two make a really great couple."

Sei's mouth dropped open in surprise. "We?" Her brain was going in a million different directions at once, trying to process this new information, and it went to the first thing it didn't understand.

"My girlfriend and I," Lua said with a shrug.

Ordinarily having learned the gender of Lua's mysterious significant other would be a significant event, but right now the most important thing to Sei was to clear up this misunderstanding about her relationship with Lime. "We're not a couple," she said with a nervous laugh. "Lime and I. We're not a couple."

Lua raised an eyebrow. "Are you sure about that?"

Sei nodded, her face a study in fierce determination. "Yes, absolutely."

"Okay, okay," Lua said, raising her hands as if fending off an attack. "You're not a couple. But are you sure that Lime knows that? And either way, you need to be dressed and ready to go in just a few minutes."

Sei nodded and headed to her room. As she got dressed, she turned things over in her head. She and Lime weren't a couple, were they? That definitely seemed like something she would know, without Lua having to tell her. They'd just met a little over week ago, at the "All I Want Filming." They texted back and forth several times a day, but that was something friends do, right? And it didn't mean anything that they signed off their texts with kissy-face emojis. Sei kissed all her friends in real life all the time, so why wouldn't she online as well? And she and Lime had gotten together to hang out a couple of times, but that was definitely something friends do. It just gave Lua the wrong impression because they all had so few friends outside Weki Meki.

Sei was dressed by this time, so she headed to the door to put her shoes on and wait for Lime. The whole time, she kept turning things over in her mind. She was pretty clear that she and Lime weren't a couple. But was Lime sure of it? It occurred to her that it was entirely possible that Lime thought they were a couple.

How did Sei find out if Lime thought they were a couple? And what did she do if she did? Doyeon-unnie would know what to do. Sei rushed to the door of the small bedroom and knocked. Yoojung-unnie answered the door, her hair up in curlers and her makeup half-done.

"Sei! You look worried. . ." Yoojung said.

"Is Doyeon-unnie awake? I need to talk to her!"

Yoojung shook her head. "She's down in the gym swimming laps." - leave it to Doyeon to be exercising on top of the day's work they'd just had - "Maybe it's something I can help you with?"

Sei considered asking Yoojung for help. Technically she was an unnie, but she didn't act like an unnie. A lot of times she acted more like the maknae than Lucy did. "No, I don't think so. . . - Thank you, though!"

"Tell you what," Yoojung said, "Doyeon and I are going out for ramen after she gets done swimming. Why don't you and Lucy come with us?"

Sei paused a moment, wondering if Yoojung had meant anything in particular by inviting her and Lucy together like that. "No, I can't. Lime's coming over. If fact, she should be here any-"

Just then there was a knock at the door.

"That's her now. I've gotta go! Bye, unnie!"

Sei hurried to the door. When she opened it, Lime rushed in and caught her up in a big hug.

"I'm so happy to see you!" she said. "How are you?"

"I'm good," Sei said, as she wondered if this was a friendly hug or if Lime thought there was something else going on. "A little tired, but good."

"Well," Lime said, "I know of a great tempura shop not far from the dorm, and I was going to treat you to dinner. Unless - you haven't already eaten, have you?"

"No," Sei said, shaking her head. "I had been thinking of making some kimchi fried rice, but tempura with you sounds way better." Her concerns over whether or not Lime thought they were a couple were momentarily overridden by the thought of a delicious dinner.

"Well, let's get going - if we get there soon, there won't be a crowd." Lime took Sei's hand and led her out of the apartment.

^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^

After a wonderful dinner of tempura vegetables and prawns, Sei and Lime went to the park for conversation and people-watching. During the course of this conversation, Sei started figuring things out: Lime didn't think the two of them were a couple - but she wanted them to be.

At one point the subject of names came up during conversation. "Only my parents still call me Seo-jeong," Sei said. "Even my big brother calls me Sei."

Lime nodded. "A few people who knew me before my debut still call me Hye-rim, but pretty much everyone calls me Lime, except for a few special people who call me by my nickname: Haley." After a short pause she continued. "I'd like it if you called me Haley."

"OK, Haley," Sei said, relishing the way the foreign name felt in her mouth.

After a while, the stars started coming out. "I've got to be back soon - curfew," Sei said awkwardly. She felt immature having a curfew when Haley was free to come and go as she pleased.

"Oh yeah," Haley said. "Don't want you getting in trouble."

They started walking back to the dorm. As they walked, Sei reached out and took Haley's hand. Haley looked back and smiled at her, then interlaced their fingers. All too quickly, though, they were standing in the hall outside Weki Meki's apartment. Haley looked down at Sei, the difference between their heights most apparently when they stood close together like this.

Haley took a deep breath and said "Sei, I'd like to kiss you. May I?"

Not trusting her voice, Sei just nodded and looked up at Haley. Haley leaned down and kissed Sei softly, just brushing their lips together. This was followed by a slightly longer kiss, then another, then Haley stood up.

"That's all we've got time for tonight," she said. "Besides, this isn't exactly the best place if we want to keep you out of trouble as far as your dating clause."

Sei nodded, inwardly marveling at how everything was the same after kissing Haley, but at the same time everything was completely different. She smiled at Haley. "Will I see you again soon?" she asked.

Haley nodded. "Count on it. But you'd better hurry up and get inside - I don't want to be in trouble with Suyeon for keeping you out after curfew on our first date."

Sei's smile grew even wider as she mouthed the words "first date!" She rushed forward and hugged Haley, then planted a kiss on her cheek, then turned and went into the apartment, eager to tell her members about her new girlfriend.

As she went inside, though, everything changed. As she turned from locking the door, the smile faded from her lips. Lucy looked at her and then ran into the large bedroom, slamming the door behind her. Lua was sitting on the couch, a dismayed look on her face, with an angry Suyeon looming over her. And Doyeon was standing in the middle of the room, staring at Sei, obviously not happy.

"Do you see what you've done?" Doyeon asked. "I told you we needed to talk."

Sei struggled to recapture her happiness of just a few seconds previous, but it was nowhere to be found. She wasn't sure what had happened while she was out with Haley, but according to what she could see, it wasn't good and it was her fault.


	6. Chapter 6

Sei started to follow Lucy into the large bedroom, but Doyeon stopped her.

"She'll be fine," Doyeon said, "but you and I need to talk." Doyeon looked over at Suyeon and Lua, deeply engrossed in conversation on the couch. "Let's go in the kitchen. You can make us a cup of tea."

Once they were in the kitchen, Doyeon leaned against the counter and watched while Sei filled the kettle and turned it on, then got down 2 mugs and put tea bags in them.

Sei turned to face Doyeon. "Okay unnie, can you tell me what's going on now, because I'm confused and a little scared. I came in and everyone was angry and somehow I've got the feeling that it's my fault and I don't understand."

Doyeon stepped forward and enfolded Sei in a hug. "It is all kind of because of you, but you didn't do anything wrong, except not understand what was going on around you."

Sei looked up at Suyeon. "I don't understand."

Doyeon sat down on the floor, pulling Sei down with her.

"Well," she said, "let's handle the easy part first: Suyeon is upset with Lua because Lua doesn't understand the dangers of playing matchmaker, so all of this is kind of her fault too."

"All of what?" Sei asked, more confused than ever. "Besides, I would have gone out with Haley tonight even if Lua hadn't told her I would."

Now it was Doyeon's turn to look confused. "Haley?"

"Lime," Sei clarified. "She said only a few people who are really special to her call her Haley and she said she'd like it if I called her Haley."

Doyeon nodded. "Okay. Anyway, would you have had the idea that you and Haley were a couple - or ought to be a couple - if Lua hadn't planted the idea there?"

Sei shook her head. "Not right away. . . I'm sure I would have come up with it eventually."

"I'm not so sure," Doyeon said. "Until Lua's meddling tonight, I think you were happy for you and Lime to be friends and had never considered anything further."

The kettle went off then. Sei got up, poured water into their mugs, and then brought the tea down to the floor.

"I still don't understand why Lua getting me and Haley together is a problem. She kissed me! I'm happy! Well, I was happy, until I came in and everyone was upset."

Doyeon nodded. "Lucy saw you kissing."

"But I don't see how that's a prob-" A look of realization dawned on Sei's face. "She's afraid someone else might have seen us and I'd get in trouble for violating our dating clause? But no one did!"

Doyeon covered her face with her palm and shook her head slowly. She looked up at Sei. "You really don't get it, do you?"

The look of understanding on Sei's face was gone, replaced by confusion again. "Apparently not," she admitted.

"Lucy likes you," Doyeon said simply.

"And I like her," Sei said. "She my best fr-" Again the dawning realization. "You mean she like likes me."

Doyeon nodded.

"But. . ." Sei looked confused again. "I thought Lucy liked MJ."

Doyeon shook her head vigorously.

"But the texts," Sei protested. "And every time I tried to talk to her on the filming day, she was always talking to him!"

"No," Doyeon corrected her. "He was talking to her. Harassing her. It got so out of control that we had to go talk to Alice to get her to talk to his leader to make it stop."

"So Alice wasn't harassing Lua!" Sei said happily.

"I'm not even going to ask where you got that idea," Doyeon said, "but no, she wasn't."

"But Lucy likes me!" Sei had a big smile on her face, which sudden vanished. "And she saw me kissing Haley."

Sei fell quiet for a minute, then turned back to Doyeon and asked "But why didn't she ever say anything to me?"

"Why didn't you ever say anything to her?" Doyeon riposted.

"I didn't even know she was gay!"

"And she didn't know you would ever be interested in her." Doyeon took a deep breath and released it slowly. "Put yourself in Lucy's shoes for a second. Everyone in Weki Meki is her unnie. She doesn't let on, but she's constantly afraid of doing the wrong thing and looking stupid, or even worse, immature. Imagine how she would have felt if she'd told you she felt this way and you hadn't felt the same way about her."

Sei thought for a minute, taking a sip of her tea. Finally, she looked up at Doyeon, a haunted look in her eyes. "What do I do now?"

Doyeon looked at her unblinkingly. "You ever hear the saying 'you've made your bed, now you have to sleep in it'? That's where you are. If you're even thinking about breaking up with Lime to go after Lucy, get that idea right out of your head. First of all, Lime doesn't deserve that. I don't know her all that well, but from the time I've spent around her, I think she'd make a great girlfriend."

"Second of all-" Doyeon was counting off points on her fingers - "if Lucy even suspects that you dumped Lime to be with her, you will have poisoned that relationship from the beginning."

"Third-" the count went on - "this is real life, not a fanfiction. Despite what the Ki-Lings write about us, you can't have both."

"And fourth and finally, you can't let on to Lucy that you know how she feels. She probably knows you know, but you've got to let her pretend that you don't. You've got to put yourself back in the mindset you were in before you came into the apartment tonight and hold on to that."

Sei reached out to Doyeon for a hug. Doyeon wrapped her arms around her and stroked her hair. "You've gotten yourself into a touch position here, but it's nothing you can't handle. And who knows what the future holds? Tomorrow everything could be totally different!" She looked at the clock on the microwave. "And now we'd better get to bed. We've got a big day of promotions tomorrow."

^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^

The next week was one of the hardest Sei had ever been through - the days were okay, being packed full of promotions, and she could text with Haley, even if they were too busy to see each other, but the nights were difficult. She had to try to go to sleep each night to the sound of Lucy crying herself to sleep in the next bed over. She'd asked Doyeon if she could try to comfort Lucy, but Doyeon said no: Comforting Lucy would mean admitting that she knew how Lucy felt, which would mean forcing Lucy to admit that Sei knew how she felt. It seemed cruel to her, but Doyeon assured her it had to be this way.

Other than the nightly crying, which was gradually lessening, the worst moment came during one of the radio promos. The interview had asked them "What's your ideal type?" - despite the fact that they'd all already answered this dozens of times, if this particular interview hadn't asked it, it didn't count. Anyway, everyone was going through pretty much their standard stock answers until it got to Lucy. She looked at Sei as she answered and said "It would have to be someone observant, someone who could figure things out without having to have them spelled out." Sei had never felt smaller - she wished she could crawl under the desk and hide.

Christmas was getting closer. None of the girls in Weki Meki were going home to visit their families over the holiday, so instead they decorated their apartment. One night during dinner, Suyeon surprised everyone with an idea.

"How would it be," she said, "if we had a Christmas party and invited the members of Hellovenus?"

Sei looked at Suyeon with a look of panic on her face: To have to negotiate a party, in their apartment (where things could happen that could never happen out in public), with both Lucy and Haley there? How was she ever going to manage that? If Suyeon noticed Sei's panic, though, she didn't respond to it. The others started talking about how much fun the party would be and trying to decide what kind of snacks they'd have. Rina asked if they could invite Elly's and Lua's significant others, so everyone could finally meet them. Elly said hers was out of town for Christmas. Lua just kept quiet until the subject was changed. By the time dinner was over, it was pretty obvious that the party was going to happen - the only ones who weren't enthusiastic about the idea were Sei and Lucy.

Before bedtime that night, Suyeon had posted a list of party duties on the refrigerator. Sei's assignment was to go to the grocery store and buy the list of snacks Suyeon had made. And since it was too much stuff for her to carry by herself, Lucy was supposed to go with her. They both looked at each other and shrugged when they saw the assignment. They knew what Suyeon was trying to do, but they didn't know how it would work. This would be the first time they'd spent alone together since Sei and Haley's date. And they didn't have much time to get ready: The party was in three days.

^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^

Sei was lying in her bed, talking to Haley on KakaoTalk.

SEI: I can't talk long. I've got to go party shopping with Lucy.

HALEY: I like Lucy. We should hang out with her more.

"Yeah, if you only knew," Sei thought.

SEI: Well, you'll get to see her at the party.

HALEY: You'll get to meet one of my best friends at the party - Suyeon said I could bring her.

SEI: Who? Is it someone I know? Or someone I would know of?

HALEY: You'd know of her, but I won't tell you who it is. I want it to be a surprise!

SEI: I don't know that I really like surprises. Too much can go wrong.

HALEY: This will be a good surprise. I'm sure of it.

Lucy poked her head in the door. "You ready to go shopping?"

"Just a second," Sei said. "I've got to sign out, then we can go."

Lucy smiled at her. "OK! Just let me know when you're ready!"

SEI: I've got to go now. Shopping time!

HALEY: Have fun, and I'll see you Sunday!


	7. Chapter 7

Suyeon was standing on a chair pinning garland to the wall up near the ceiling. Doyeon was standing on the floor next to her, handing up the pins - and also ready to catch her if she fell. As leader, it was Suyeon's prerogative to decide she would be the one to stand on the chair, but Doyeon wouldn't have chosen to put her up there. Doyeon had a hard enough time not causing disaster when she was standing on the floor, so Doyeon tensed herself with every wobble, ready to catch her leader, or at least lower her more gently to the floor.

"I wish I could invite Moonbin to the party," Suyeon said.

"You know we can't do that," Doyeon reminded her. "If we invite Moonbin, we have to invite all of Astro, and there are potential problems if MJ is here for the party."

"I know why we can't do it," Suyeon said petulantly, "but it doesn't stop me from wishing things were different."

"I know," Doyeon said, "and I've already promised you I'll help you get to spend some time with Moonbid during the holidays."

Reaching the end of a piece of garland, Suyeon stepped down, sat down in the chair, and pulled Doyeon into her lap. "Are you sure this party is a good idea?"

Doyeon shook her head. "No, but it's the idea we've got."

Suyeon brushed a stray strand of Doyeon's hair out of her face. "Remind me again what's supposed to happen here."

Doyeon looked around and, seeing that none of the other members were around, said "By forcing Sei, Lime, and Lucy to spend several hours in close proximity, I'm hoping that things will reach some sort of a resolution for the Lime-Sei-Lucy love triangle."

"What kind of resolution?" Suyeon asked. "Because if you're looking for a huge fight, I think you'll get it."

"I'm not hoping for that, but it is possible." Doyeon admitted. "I'm hoping either Lucy will see how happy Sei and Lime are together and step out of the triangle or else Lime will see how much Lucy loves Sei and how great they'd be together and steps away. Either way, I'm hoping we'll be able to reduce some of the tension around here."

Doyeon stood up and handed Suyeon the end of the next piece of garland. Suyeon slid the chair a little further down the wall, climbed back up, and resumed hanging the garland.

"I just hope you're right," Suyeon said, "because if this goes wrong, I foresee it going wrong spectacularly."

"Then we'll just have to try to see to it that it doesn't go wrong," Doyeon said.

"Do you think we should make Alice aware of the situation?" Suyeon asked. "Maybe she could help.

Doyeon shook her head. "I'd considered that, but I think the fewer people know there is a plan, the less the chances that it'll slip out that there is a plan. The last thing we need is for one of the people in the triangle to figure out that there's an ulterior motive for this party. Especially Lime."

"Why especially Lime?"

"Because she won't see it as just trying to resolve the situation. She'll automatically jump to the idea that we're trying to break her and Sei up so that we can get two of our members together." Doyeon handed Suyeon another piece of garland.

"Well, I hope it's a fun party anyway," Suyeon said with a shrug.

"Me too," Doyeon agreed, "If it's not a fun party, they're more likely to figure out what we're up to."

^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^

Sei rolled their half-full cart down the snack aisle at the grocery store. She reached up to grab a bag of shrimp chips.

"Oh, not those," Lucy said. She reached up and grabbed a bag from the shelf above the one Sei was reaching for. "Yoojung-unnie prefers this brand."

"I couldn't have even reached that one," Sei said with a laugh. She looked up at Lucy. "And how do you know everyone's favorite snacks?"

Lucy shrugged. "I look out for my unnies."

"Apparently," Sei agreed. "And apparently if I'm ever trying to sneak and get away with something, you're the one who's likely to catch me."

Lucy nodded. "If you want to know what's going on in any group, ask the maknae. They'll know everything that's going on." Lucy got a mysterious look in her eye. "Of course, whether or not they want to tell you is another matter entirely."

"And what's going on in Weki Meki?" Sei asked.

"Well," Lucy said, moving down the aisle so they could get the next thing on their list. "Suyeon is planning to sneak and meet up with Moonbin tonight. Elly met up with her significant other when she and Rina went out to buy the decorations for that party. Lua's anxious to see her girlfriend, but apparently her girlfriend's schedule is preventing it. And Yoojung is having her period this week."

Sei's jaw dropped. "How did you see all that?"

Lucy counted off points on her fingers. "This is the first time in a week that Weki Meki and Astro have had a night off at the same time, hence Suyeon and Moonbin. Elly was texting furiously right before she and Rina left to go shopping, and she's been doing all kinds of little favors for Rina ever since they got back. Lua's frustration is so obvious I shouldn't even have to mention it, and we've had three evenings off in the last two weeks, so the problem must be with her girlfriend's schedule."

Sei nodded, trying to take this all in. "And Yoojung?"

"Doyeon put tampons on the grocery list this week, but she's been swimming every day this week, and she never swims in the week before her period, so obviously the tampons are for Yoojung."

Sei shook her head in amazement. "It all sounds so easy when you explain it, but I never would have figured all that out on my own."

Lucy moved further down the aisle, toward the Pepero display. "Maknaes know what's going on," she said with a shrug. "It's our superpower."

^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^

That night after dinner they were getting ready to watch a movie, when Suyeon stood up, stretched, and said "You can watch the movie without me. I'm going to go for a walk."

Sei looked at Lucy, who nodded significantly, then pointed with her eyes toward Rina. Elly was just bringing Rina a cup of tea. Lua was texting someone, obviously not in the best of moods. And Yoojung suddenly looked startled and rushed to the bathroom. Sei looked back at Lucy, her jaw dropped in amazement. Lucy smiled and nodded, then leaned back and got ready to watch the movie.

There was a moment in the movie when the heroine's facial expression reminded Sei of the look on Lucy's face after she had seen Sei and Haley kissing. "It's too bad Lucy's superpowers only extend to the members of our group, or maybe she could have prevented this situation," Sei thought. Sei didn't enjoy the rest of the movie so much after thinking about that. She was very uncertain about her future with Haley or her status with Lucy and it was all very unsettling. She didn't regret that she was with Haley, except sometimes she did, and she wasn't spending every waking moment thinking about Lucy, just some of them. She'd always thought love triangles were stupid when she saw them in dramas, but now that she was in the middle of one, she understood why the heroines had such a difficult time just choosing. Suddenly, Sei had a feeling that she was being watched. She glanced up just in time to catch Lucy looking back at the screen. After that afternoon's demonstration, she had no doubt that her thoughts were as clear to Lucy as if they were written in the air above her head.


	8. Chapter 8

Finally the night of the party arrived. There was a knock at the door and Rina opened it to admit the members of Hellovenus. Well, all of them but one.

"Where's Lime?" Sei asked.

Alice laughed. "She'll be here. She just went to pick up her friend. She said it's a surprise for all of us."

Sei was still nervous about the concept of surprises, and she wished Haley had arrived with the rest of the group. Sei had had a sense of foreboding all day, and if something was going to happen, she wanted to go ahead and get it over it.

Sei chatted with Alice as Hellovenus's leader helped herself to the snacks. Looking over Alice's shoulder, she saw Lucy deep in conversation with Yeoreum - apparently the maknaes were exchanging secrets. Sei was pretty sure that by the time the night was over, both maknaes would know everything there was to know about both groups.

Just then there was another knock at the door. Rina opened the door to admit Haley and-

"Jennie?" Lua practically launched herself into the Blackpink member's arms from across the room. Everyone was curious to see how Jennie would react to this, and they were all surprised when she wrapped her arms around Lua and returned Lua's kisses with the same enthusiasm as Lua gave them.

After several moments of this, Lua disentangled herself some Jennie and - keeping hold of Jennie's hand, turned around to face the others. "Everyone," she said, "I know you've all been dying of curiosity about my girlfriend, and I kept telling you I'd know when the time is right for you to learn about her. Well, apparently now the time is right. This is my girlfriend Jennie. We've been dating for almost 100 days - Christmas will be our 100 day anniversary."

Jennie adjusted her grip on Lua's hand and waved at everyone. "Hi everyone. Lua's told me so much about you! I'm looking forward to getting to talk with all of you tonight."

Sei looked at Haley and mouthed "Did you know?" Haley just shook her head and shrugged, apparently as taken aback as everyone else.

^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^

The party had been going for a couple of hours. People had divided up into little groups which shuffled around from time to time. Sei and Haley were sitting on the couch with Lua and Jennie. After repeated urging from Sei, Jennie was telling them about her experiences on the year-end celebration shows. Sei hoped to someday be on those shows, but Jennie's experience of being featured twice, once as a solo performer and once as a member of Blackpink, was something Sei had trouble even imagining.

Just then Lucy came up to the couch, Yeoreum trailing behind her. "Excuse us, folks. We need to borrow Lime for a second."

Haley got up, looked curiously at the maknaes, and said "I'll be back. Don't have all the fun without me!" Lucy led the little group out into the hallway and shut the door behind them.

Jennie got a mischievous twinkle in her eye as she turned back to Sei. "So, Sei, are you nervous?" she asked.

Sei looked up, startled. "Nervous? Why would I be nervous?"

"Oh, I don't know," Jennie said. "I think if my would-be girlfriend had just taken my current girlfriend out in the hall for a private conversation, I'd be nervous, if not straight up worried."

Sei felt her mouth get dry. "You think they're talking about me?"

Jennie shrugged. "Based on what Lua's told me, I can't think of anything else they'd be talking about."

Just then the apartment door opened and Yeoreum came back in. She crossed the room to stand by Alice, joining Alice's conversation with Suyeon and Doyeon.

Jennie's eyebrows went up and she whistled quietly. "The plot thickens," she said.

They all looked over at the group that included both leaders. Everyone in the group was intermittently looking at Sei and at the door, while doing their best to not appear to be looking at either.

"And now we all wait," Lua said.

After looking around nervously, wondering who was actually waiting and who was blissfully unaware of the drama that was apparently playing out here, Sei turned back to Lua and Jennie.

"So. . . how did you two even meet?"

"It was. . ." they both said at once. After laughing over their false start, Lua said, "You tell it - you tell it better than I do." She then leaned back against Jennie and waited for the story to begin.

"It was a Sunday afternoon - they were filming Inkigayo and I had gone to the studio to support my member Jisoo, who was one of the hosts. The filming hadn't started yet, so I'd gone out into the corridor while they did Jisoo's hair and makeup and got her dressed. And that's where I found this cutie-" she pinched Lua's cheek "- wandering the halls totally lost. She pretended not to recognize me, and asked if I could help her find the commissary so she could get a sandwich. She seemed so helpless that I walked with her all the way to the commissary and treated us both to sandwiches. We exchanged numbers, with the usual half-hearted promises to get in touch later, but then when I saw you all on stage and it felt like she was singing directly to me-"

"Because I was!" Lua interrupted.

"Hush!" Jennie said, tapping her on the nose. "I'm telling the story. Anyway, it felt like she was singing directly to me, and I knew I wanted to see her again. So I texted her that night, and we started texting back and forth, and seeing each other whenever we can - which hasn't been nearly enough. So when Haley invited me to a party in this part of town, I went along, hoping I could sneak away for part of the evening and go see Lua, and then it turned out to be your party, so I didn't even have to do that!"

Lua sat up and looked at Jennie. "I actually was helpless when you found me, and I really didn't recognize you - I'd forgotten my glasses and I hadn't put my contacts in for the performance yet."

"That reminds me!" Jennie said. "I haven't seen your new glasses yet!"

After Lua scrambled off to take out her contacts and put on her glasses, Jennie turned back to Sei and said "She really is a sweetie - I feel so lucky to have found her. I-"

Whatever she was about to say was cut off by the apartment door slamming open and Lucy and Lime storming into the room. They went up to the group containing the leaders, said something, then Lucy stormed off into her room while Lime stomped out of the apartment, each slamming the door behind her.

Sei was totally stunned by this turn of events and just sat there, looking from one door to the other, trying to understand what she had just seen. Suddenly Alice yelled at her "Sei! Don't just sit there! Go to her!" Sei jumped up and ran. . .


	9. Chapter 9

Sei jumped up, ran through the bedroom door, and shut it behind her. Giving her eyes a moment to adjust to the dim light, she realized that Lucy was standing by the ladder to her bed, watching the bedroom door. Sei struggled to make out her facial expression, but from what she could see, Lucy's face was an impassive mask.

"What are you doing here?" Lucy asked.

"I- You were upset, so I came to you."

"Your girlfriend was upset too," Lucy said. "Why didn't you go to her?"

"I just. . ." Sei looked down, pausing for a moment to collect her thoughts. "Alice yelled to me 'Run! Go to her!' and. . . I just now realized she never specified who she meant by 'her', but apparently my mind had some ideas of who she should mean, because here I am." She looked up at Lucy. "I don't know what I'm supposed to say now, or what's supposed to happen. But as soon as you and I get done talking, however that works out, I'm going to go find Haley and break up with her. Because you're the first person I think about in the morning and the last person I think about at night, and she deserves someone who feels that way about her, and I'm not that person. I thought I was that person, because I thought you wanted to be with MJ, but I can't be that person, and now I know I don't want to." A single tear rolled down her cheek.

"Yeah," Lucy said, "after we're done here, you'd definitely better break up with her - I don't know her terribly well, but based on what I know, and on what Yeoreum has told me about her, she deserves better than to be someone's consolation prize."

Sei winced. "Ouch. I guess I deserved that."

Lucy nodded emphatically. "You deserve that and a lot more. It's a good thing we've got tomorrow off, because after the party, you and I have a lot of talking to do."

Sei nodded.

"Now," Lucy said, "unless she's gotten bored and come back inside, you'll find Haley in the hallway outside our apartment, and then we've got to get back to our guests."

^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^

Twenty minutes later, Sei and Haley were walking back into the apartment from the hallway. If either of them had red eyes, their friends didn't let on that they'd noticed.

"So," Sei was saying, "I suppose you're my ex-girlfriend now, which is a new situation for me. Is it weird to still want to be friends with you?"

Haley shook her head. "Not weird at all, and I'm glad you still want to be friends. But right now it looks like Alice and Doyeon are trying to get your attention."

"I'd better go see what they want," Sei said. "I'll see you around." And she managed to find a smile for Haley.

As Sei walked across the room to where Doyeon and Alice were talking, she looked around the room to see what everyone else was up to. Suyeon was talking to Lua and Jennie. Lucy, Rina, and Yeoreum were sitting on the floor playing a card game. Elly and Nara were having an intense discussion about something. Haley was crossing the room to join Yeoreum at the snack table.

"So how's it going?" Alice asked Sei.

Sei thought for a moment. "Pretty good," she said. "I've had a couple of conversations tonight that I should have had a couple of weeks ago."

"Yeah," Alice said, "I was just talking to one of your unnies about the dangers of playing secret agent with other peoples' hearts." Doyeon looked suitably chastised at this. "And if you ever find yourself in a situation like this again, feel free to ask me for advice, or any of your sunbaes - that's what we're here for."

Sei nodded. "Thank you, Alice-sunbae." She paused a moment, looking down, then looked up and asked. "So. . . what do I do about Lucy?"

Alice looked across the room to where Lucy had just won something in the card game and was waving her hands triumphantly over her head. "I think she'll be okay," she said, turning back to Sei. "You'll just need to give her a little time to admit that she's already forgiven you."

Sei looked startled. "She has?"

Alice nodded. "If she hadn't forgiven you, she wouldn't have gone through so much trouble to get you back."

Sei looked even more startled. "Get me back? But. . . . we're not dating. She's not my girlfriend."

Alice laughed. "Maybe not, but you're hers. And in the next few days she'll let you know exactly what that means."

^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^

Sei and Lucy agreed that the mornings after parties were the worst time to be the morning people in the group - they had to either tackle cleaning the apartment just the two of them, or else sit around in the previous night's mess until some of the others woke up to help them clean it. This particular morning cleaning won out over waiting - if they were busy enough, they couldn't talk. But eventually everything was clean and there was no way to avoid the fact that they needed to continue their conversation from the night before.

Lucy sat down on the couch and gestured for Sei to come sit down beside her. Sei sat down, then turned to Lucy and smiled weakly. "I really screwed things up, didn't I?"

Lucy nodded. "You really did. But not so bad that they can't be fixed."

Sei's smile got a little bit stronger. "I'd like that," she said.

"Well, you're going to have to work at it," Lucy said, "and you've already demonstrated you're not that good at figuring situations out on your own. So I'm going to need a lot more communication from you. Like, really, really a lot."

Sei nodded.

Lucy's expression got even more serious. "I know I made things hard for you last night, but I needed to know you weren't going to bail as soon as things got hard."

Sei nodded again. "I can understand that. I haven't really done too well so far."

Lucy smiled at her. "You definitely could have done better."

"I will. Believe me I will."

"We'll see," Lucy said with a smile. "You can start by taking me out to breakfast."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you were reading this on aff, you'd see a poll at the end asking "Is this the end?" Now that Sei and Lucy are together, is that the end of the story? Or is there more left to tell? Feel free to comment with your opinion!


	10. Chapter 10

Sei and Lucy were sitting in a local cafeteria, waiting for their omelettes to be cooked, talking quietly.

"Of course," Sei said, "now the really hard part starts."

Lucy looked up from the table. "What's that?"

"We've got to keep it a total secret that we're dating," Sei said. "We're still under the dating ban, and even once that ends it wouldn't be safe to come out as gay."

"That's especially hard for me," Lucy said, "because I just want to, you know, shout to the whole world -" she dropped the volume of her voice so she was speaking even quieter - "that you're my girlfriend."

Sei nodded. "But we can't." She paused for a moment. "We'll need to ask our unnies and our sunbaes for advice on how not to get caught."

"Especially the sunbaes," Lucy said. "I don't trust the unnies to know much better than we do."

"Well, yeah, they do mess up sometimes," Sei admitted, thinking of the bad advice Doyeon had given her, "but they mean well, and they haven't gotten caught yet, so that's got to count for something."

"I think Elly's the best one at this. I mean, we don't even know who she's dating." Lucy said.

They stopped talking as the waitress brought their egg rolls, then stayed quiet for a few minutes while they eat. By the time they were ready to talk again, Lucy had thought of something. "We won't be able to wear couples things, will we?" she asked.

Sei shook her head. "Probably not," she said. She popped a piece of omelette in her mouth and chewed for a moment while she thought. "I'll text Alice-sunbae and see what she says."

"She's probably still asleep," Lucy said, as she reached over and grabbed a piece of omelette off Sei's plate.

"Probably," Sei agreed. "But she'll see it when she wakes up, and I bet she's got some answers."

"I hope so," Lucy said, pouting. "Winter is the best time for couples things - you can do gloves, caps, scarves, jackets. . ."

To their surprise, Sei's phone beeped. She picked it up and started reading. "Apparently Alice isn't such a sleepyhead as our members - she said she'd been up for a couple of hours but didn't text because she didn't want to wake me up."

"Let's see. . ." Sei said, reading on. "She says if I'm asking about couples things then she supposes congratulations are in order. She'd got 3 suggestions and I'm guessing you're not going to like two of them."

"Well, let's see?" Lucy said, obviously dying of impatience.

"OK. One: We buy the items, but never both wear them at once."

Lucy shook her head. "That's no good. Well, not very good. What else?"

"Two: Pajamas and underwear."

"Pajamas could be fun, but only our members would get to see them."

"True. OK, one option left: Small items, like keyrings and phone charms."

Lucy's face lit up. "Keyrings! That's perfect!"

Sei laughed. "I suppose it is at that."

"Okay then," Lucy said. "When we finish breakfast, I'll go shopping for the keyrings, and I'll meet you back at the apartment."

"I don't get a say in our keyrings?" Sei asked.

Lucy looked at her and raised her eyebrows. "Really? Are you thinking? How weird would it look if you and I go shopping for keyrings together and then buy the same one. If I go out by myself and buy them, no one will think twice. Plus, I've got an idea of what keyrings I want."

Sei nodded. "Makes sense. OK, I'm done eating. You?"

Lucy stole one last bite of Sei's omelette. "Now I'm done. Meet you back at the apartment." She touched her hand to her mouth, then touched it to Sei's hand. Sei blushed.

"Have fun, and I can't wait to see what you pick out."

"You'll like it," Lucy said with a laugh. They left the cafeteria and turned in opposite directions: Lucy toward the market and Sei toward the apartment. Sei looked back after about half a block. She spotted Lucy and considered waving, but since Lucy was facing away from her, she didn't. She really wanted to, though.

^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^

Sei got back to the apartment to discover that only Rina and Lua were awake. Lua was sitting on the couch, texting furiously. (Probably to Jennie, Sei now knew.) Rina was in the kitchen, just serving herself a bowl of instant noodles.

"Good morning!" Rina said.

Sei looked at the kitchen clock. It was still barely morning. Laughing, she replied "Good morning!" and went to put on water for a cup of tea.

While she waited for the water to boil, she sat down at the table with Rina and they chatted about the previous night's party.

"So. . ." Rina said as Sei poured hot water in her mug and stuck the tea bag in, "you and Lucy are a couple now?"

Sei nodded, a big grin spreading over her face. "Yes! I can't believe it but yes! I've had a crush on her since training, and now we're a couple!"

Rina looked at her. "You've had a crush on her since training?"

Sei nodded enthusiastically.

"I never would have guessed."

As Sei shrugged, Rina said "No, I'm just messing with you - we all knew you wanted Lucy and were wondering what was taking you so long."

"Really?" Sei looked puzzled.

Rina nodded. "Really."

Sei sat back down, idly stirring her tea while waiting for it to steep. "I thought I hid it so well," she said, grinning shyly.

Rina shook her head. "Oh no. We could all tell. That's why it confused us all when you started dating Lime."

Sei shrugged. "At the time, I though Lucy was interested in MJ, so I figured why torture myself."

"Speaking of Lime," Rina said. Suddenly she started blushing and covered her face with her hands. "I can't believe I'm about to ask this - and of you, of all people!" She peered out cautiously between her hands. "Do you think you could fix me up with Lime?"

"I can tell her you're interested and give her your number. Will that do?"

Rina nodded, but whatever she was about to say was drowned out by the sound of Lucy coming into the apartment, singing happily.

"Sei! Close your eyes!" she called out.

Sei did as Lucy instructed. She heard the clinking of keys being taken off a ring and put on another. "So apparently she decided to go with keyrings," Sei thought to herself.

"No peeking!" Lucy said. Sei squinched her eyes shut tighter and waited impatiently. She hard water running, then a few other sounds she couldn't quite identify, then Lucy said. "OK! You can look now!"

Sei opened her eyes, blinked a couple of times to get used to the light again, and looked down at the table. Her keys were now on a keychain featuring Gutedama, the lazy egg, sitting in a teacup.

"I saw that and I knew it was perfect for us," Lucy explained, "because I love Gutedama and you love tea. Also, I found you this:"

She picked something up from the counter and set it down in front of Sei. Sei looked down to see that her cup of tea was now in a mug featuring pictures of Gutedama on the side. "You can use this around the house," Lucy said. "And I've got dibs on smashing it if you break my heart."

"I would never want to do that," Sei said, jumping up and giving Lucy a hug.

"That doesn't mean it might not happen anyway," Lucy said, looking down at Sei and stroking her hair. "You've got to be careful."

"Well, I'll just leave you two here," Rina said, getting up and putting her bowl in the sink. On her way out of the room, she stopped. "Sei, don't forget about that text you were supposed to send for me."

"No problem - I'll do it in just a minute," Sei responded.

After Rina had left the room, Lucy quietly asked "What text?"

"Oh," Sei said, figuring it was okay to tell Lucy, "Sei wants me to fix her up with Haley."

A smile spread across Lucy's face and she jumped up and down excitedly. "Really! They'd make such a cute couple!"

Sei nodded. "So give me a minute so I can send some texts to try to make it happen."

"Sounds good," Lucy said with a final squeeze before letting go of Sei, "I'm going to go see if I can wake up the rest of our members. We were supposed to go to the park this afternoon."

"I'd forgotten about that!" Sei said, smiling mischievously. "I'd better make sure that Haley knows Rina will be at the park this afternoon."


	11. Chapter 11

Sei pulled out her phone and opened KakaoTalk. She started a conversation with Haley.

SEI: Haley! How's it going?

HALEY: OK. What's up?

SEI: We're all going to dinner at Mario's tonight. I think you might want to be there.

HALEY: Oh. Why?

SEI: You remember my member Rina?

HALEY: Yeah. . .

SEI: She likes you!

HALEY: Really?

SEI: YES!!!

HALEY: But isn't she younger than you?

SEI: Just by one year.

HALEY: I don't know - I'd feel weird. I mean, you're almost an adult, but she'd be a year away.

SEI: So? Lucy's even younger than Rina.

HALEY: No way! I thought Rina was the maknae.

SEI: No. Rina's about a year older than Lucy.

HALEY: I'll think about it. I just feel weird, you know?

SEI: Don't feel weird. She likes you.

HALEY: I'll think about it.

SEI: OK. If you come tonight, we've reserved our dining room starting at 7. You remember where Mario's is?

HALEY: Sure - I lived in that dorm until a couple of years ago, so I know the neighborhood.

SEI: I hope we see you!

HALEY: I've got to go - I need to think about things.

SEI: OK. Bye!

"That was an awful lot of typing," Lucy said. "What did Haley have to say?"

Sei closed KakaoTalk and put her phone down on the table. "She doesn't know. She thinks Rina might be too young for her."

Lucy's eyes flashed with indignation. "But! But Rina's only a year younger than you!"

Sei nodded. "I know. I told her that. It worries her than Rina's still a year away from being an adult."

Lucy's face grew suddenly serious. "Are you worried about me? I'm still two years away from being an adult."

Sei shook her head. "No, I'm not worried about it. But I'm younger than Haley. I'm only two years older than you are, but she's seven years older than me."

"Which means she's eight years older than Rina," Lucy said. "So, what, seven years is okay but eight is just over some imaginary line?"

Sei could tell that Lucy was getting upset by this. "It's all because of the stupid age of majority," Sei said. "I don't think it's a problem, you don't think it's a problem, obviously Rina doesn't think it's a problem, but if Haley thinks it's a problem, then it's a problem for her."

Elly happened to walk in at this time. "What's a problem for Haley?"

"Stupid age gap," Lucy said, sulking.

Seeing the confused look on Elly's face, Sei elaborated. "Haley apparently didn't have a problem with dating me, because I'm almost an adult, but apparently Rina being a year younger than me is a deal-breaker."

"And why should Rina's age matter at all?" Elly asked, no less confused than before.

Sei went on. "Because Rina asked me to try to fix her up with Haley, and when I talked to Haley, she kind of freaked out and I don't know if she's coming to the park this afternoon or not. . ."

Elly nodded. "I understand this. Let me talk to Alice, then maybe to Haley. I've got some experience that might make a difference here."

And with that, Elly went to the big bedroom and shut the door behind her.

"I wonder what experience Elly has that could make a difference in this," Lucy said. Sei just shrugged.

^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^

Sei and Lucy went to Mario's ahead of the rest of the members - the others could be a little late, but Sei and Lucy wanted to be there at 7 in case Haley showed up.

"Do you think she's going to come?" Lucy asked as they settled in with some pop and garlic bread to pass the time.

Sei shrugged. "I don't know," she said. "We don't know what's going through her head, we don't know what Elly told her, we pretty much don't know anything."

Lucy looked at her keys sitting on the table in front of her. She absent-mindedly reached out and rubbed her "couple's key-ring" between her finger and thumb. "I hope Haley decides she want to go out with Rina - Rina would be so sad if it doesn't work out, and I know what it's like to want to be with someone and not be able to."

"Oh, yeah, and I know absolutely nothing about that!" Sei responded with a sarcastic roll of her eyes.

"Well, yeah, you know," Lucy said, "but I think it's harder when you're younger."

"Maybe so," Sei said. "I'm just glad I've got you now."

"Me too!" Lucy said. "I just wish we didn't have to hide."

"It could be worse," Sei said. "Imagine if we were in different groups: Our schedules would be different, we'd probably live in different dorms, and every time we were seen together in public we'd be being watched by members of both groups."

Lucy nodded and took a bite of garlic bread. "Yeah, you're right. With all the odds against them, what's surprising isn't that some people get caught dating, but that most people don't."

Sei nodded. "Yeah, they should be recruiting idols to be spies. I mean, look at Elly - she's been dating her person since our first promo and we have no idea who it is."

Just then the dining room door opened and Haley came in. "Hey guys! How's it going?"

"Good!" Lucy said. "The rest of our members should be here soon."

"Did you settle on a couple's item?" Haley asked.

"We did!" Sei said. "Lucy picked them out." She handed her keys to Haley.

"Oh! Gudetama! That's cute!" Haley handed the keys back.

"Did you think any more about what we talked about this morning?" Sei asked.

Haley nodded solemnly. "I did, but I haven't reached any decisions yet."

"Maybe you'll have some ideas after hanging with Rina tonight," Lucy said.

"Maybe," Haley agreed. "I'm just feeling kind of odd about it, you know?"

Sei and Lucy nodded their agreement. "I think-" Sei began, but whatever she thought was cut off by Lua rushing into the room.

"We need to take the pizza back to the dorm," she said. "Suyeon needs our help and she's in no shape to come out right now."

'What's wrong?" Sei and Lucy asked in unison.

"This," Lua said. She called up a news story on her phone and held it out to them. "Moonbin and Momo: We're Dating!" read the headline.

"But. . ." Sei protested, "Suyeon doesn't believe this, does she?"

"She didn't," Lua said, "until she called Moonbin and he confirmed it. Apparently he and Momo have been dating since summer, but he didn't want to break things off with Suyeon so he was dating both of them."

"What a slimeball!" Lucy exclaimed.

Haley stood up. "It sounds like you've got a group problem here," she said. "I'd better get out of your way." Sei and Lucy tried to convince her to come back to the apartment with them, but Haley was adamant that she had to go. "I'm really not the right one to handle this sort of situation," she said, "and besides, Suyeon's not really going to want to have an outsider around while she's going through this." She put her jacket on and was tying her scarf. "If you need a sunbae to help out with this, just give me a call and I'll send Alice or Nara over."

By this time Lua had gotten the pizzas packed to go, so as soon as Sei and Lucy got their jackets on, they headed back home.

"I didn't want to say in front of Lime, but being upset isn't the only reason Suyeon can't come out tonight," Sei said. Upon receiving inquisitive looks from Sei and Lucy, she went on. "Apparently Suyeon had a bottle of soju stashed in the apartment and she drank it. We're having to keep phones away from her to keep her from calling Moonbin and begging him to come back or calling Momo and bitching her out."

"Oh boy," Sei said. "I bet a depressed, drunk Suyeon is just the most fun thing ever."

"You've got no idea," Lua said. "She pulled Elly's hair trying to get her phone away from her and she knocked Rina down trying to get her phone. She was crying loud enough I'm surprised nobody heard and called Manager-nim. Doyeon and Yoojung were keeping her quiet in the small room when I left." By this time they had reached their apartment. Lua unlocked the door and then stopped with her hand on the doorknob. "Brace yourself - we've got no idea what we're about to walk into."


	12. Chapter 12

"One bottle of soju," Sei said. "She can't be that drunk, can she?"

Lua shook her head. "It was one of the big bottles, undiluted. She's totally wasted."

"Oh great. Well, we'd better get in there." Sei opened the door, unsure what to expect.

Rina met them at the door. "Thank God you're here!" she said, then called out toward the back of the apartment "The cavalry is here!"

Doyeon's voice came drifting up: "Send them to the bathroom."

Sei nodded, and patted Rina on the arm as she headed to the bathroom, Lucy following in her wake. When they got there, they saw Suyeon kneeling on the floor in front of the toilet, Doyeon holding her hair back as she heaved and retched.

"I think she threw it all up," Doyeon said, "but her stomach hasn't gotten the message yet."

Lucy took Suyeon's hair as Sei knelt down by Suyeon. "We've got this for a while," Sei said. "Why don't you go get something to eat, if you've still got an appetite after this."

Doyeon nodded. "At the very least, I want to be in another room right now."

Sei reached out and tucked a stray strand of Suyeon's hair behind her ear. Suyeon looked over at her, her eyes filled with tears.

"I loved him," Suyeon said. "I really loved him, and then he did this. And Momo? Really, Momo? She could have any guy she wants and she decides she wants Moonbin? Why? He was my boyfriend! Mine!"

Sei wrapped her arms around Suyeon, making comforting noises as she cradled Suyeon's head on her shoulder. "It's going to be okay. Momo probably doesn't even know about you and Moonbin. It's obvious the newspapers didn't know or you'd have been in the headline - a love triangle is a bigger scandal than a simple dating expose."

Suyeon nodded, resting her head more heavily on Sei's shoulder.

"Hey, you're getting pretty sleepy," Sei said. "You done throwing up?"

"All done," Suyeon said in a surprising cheerful voice.

Sei looked up at Lucy. "Get me her toothbrush and toothpaste. I'm going to get that taste out of her mouth, then put her to bed."

Lucy let go of Suyeon's hair and went to find the requested items. She came back with the toothbrush preloaded with paste, and helped hold Suyeon steady while Sei brushed her teeth. Then she got a cup of water so Suyeon could rinse her mouth, then Sei sent her back for another cup of water and made Suyeon drink it.

"She's still going to feel like crap in the morning, but that will at least make things a little better."

They got Suyeon to her feet and then, each supporting her by one arm, walked her to her bed. As Lucy was getting Suyeon arranged and covered up, Sei went back to the bedroom and called out "There aren't any phones in the small bedroom, are there?"

"No," Yoojung said. "Except for yours and Lucy's we've got everyone's phones in the freezer, including Suyeon's."

"The freezer?" Lucy asked, coming up behind Sei.

"Yeah," Elly said, "even if we're all asleep and she gets up, she's not going to look in the freezer for a phone. Speaking of which, give me yours."

They handed their phones to Elly as they entered the kitchen. Lucy crossed over to the sink and started washing her hands, but Sei looked down at herself and said "I've got to go change my shirt. Be right back."

^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^

When Sei get back from changing her shirt, having stopped by the small bedroom to check on Suyeon on the way, she found that the others had already opened the pizzas and were eating. What was to have been a party had turned into a council of war, but warriors need nutrition just as much as partiers.

"So what's going on?" Sei asked, helping herself to a slice of veggie delight pizza.

"Well," Doyeon said, "we've managed to protect Suyeon from herself for tonight. Now we've got to figure out what to do going forward."

"I think it's obvious what we've got to do," Elly said. When it became apparently that it in fact wasn't obvious to everyone else, she went on "We've got to get a message to Momo, letting her know that she's not the only one who Moonbin was dating."

"Assuming she didn't already know," Rina said.

"I've met Momo," Yoojung said, "We sang together at the 2016 KBS. I don't believe she would deliberately do something like this to someone."

"So," Doyeon said, looking around the room, "does anyone have the phone number of anyone in Twice?" But nobody did.

"Wait a second," Lua said. "I don't have anyone's number, but I know someone who does." She got her phone out of the freezer and made a call. The others sat quietly and listened.

"Jennie! Hi! How you doin' babe?" Lua listened intently, smiling at whatever Jennie was saying. "Yeah, it's great to talk to you too, but I can't really talk right now - I've got all my members sitting her listening to me. . . Uh huh. . . You've heard the news about Momo and Moonbin? . . . Of course you have. Anyway, are you still friends with Nayeon? Argh, this is so awkward. Can you ask Nayeon to have Momo call Yoojung? Do you have her number? . . . Good. No, I can't tell you what it's about, it's just important that Momo call Yoojung as soon as possible. . . . Thanks babe. I'll talk to you later, 'kay?" She ended the call with a "Love you!" and a kiss, then put her phone back in the freezer, behind the mochi. She dug out Yoojung's phone and handed it to her.

"And now we wait," Yoojung said, putting the phone down on the table in front of her.

^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^

As it turned out, they didn't have to wait long - inside of five minutes, Yoojung's phone was ringing. Her "I Don't Like Your Girlfriend" ringtone had never seemed more appropriate. She took a deep breath and steeled herself, then picked up the phone.

"Hello? Hi Momo - thanks for calling me so quickly. . . Yeah, I'm doing fine. Look, I'm sure you're really busy tonight, so I'll try to make this as quick as I can. I've heard the rumors about you and Moonbin, he's told one of my members that they're true, and either way there's something you need to know. . ."

And in a matter of minutes Yoojung had brought Momo up to date on what Moonbin had been doing. The others couldn't tell what Momo was saying, but they could hear her well enough to know that she was mad.

"Okay, yeah. . . yeah, that sounds like a good idea. . . Okay. I'll let you go so you can take care of this. Let's keep in touch. Bye!"

Yoojung put her phone down on the table and looked around the room. "It looks like things are taken care of. Momo's about to deny the rumors to her agency and to the press, then she's going to call Moonbin and let him know that if he knows what's good for him, he'll lose her number and deny the rumors."

A smattering of cheers and high-fives met this news.

"Suyeon's not going to take him back, is she?" Rina asked.

Elly shook her head. "I don't think so. Especially not after we have a talk with her tomorrow morning, catch her up on all the excitement that she missed."

Lucy put her arm around Sei. "First MJ. now Moonbin. I'm so glad that I'm gay - guys are the worst!"

"Not all guys," Elly said. "There are, believe it or not, good men out there."

Doyeon narrowed her eyes as she looked at Elly. "Can we take this as an indication that your special someone is a guy?"

Elly shrugged. "Take it however you like. When the time is right, you'll find out who my special someone is. That's all I'm gonna say."

Having until recently been someone with a secret significant other, Lua knew that Elly would want attention directed off of her. "Okay everyone," she said, "we'd better get to bed so there's no chance of Suyeon waking up first."

"Good idea," Sei said. "The last thing we need is to wake up tomorrow and discover that a hung-over, headache-y Suyeon has torn the apartment apart trying to find a phone."

^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^

Sei was lying in bed, thinking over the evening's events, when she felt Lucy reach across the gap between the beds and grab her hand. She rolled over and looked over the guardrail at Lucy. "What's up?"

"I just thinking about Suyeon," Lucy said. "I feel really bad for her."

"She'll be fine," Sei said. "She'll be miserable for a while, but then she'll start to feel better and one day this evening will be just a bad memory."

"If she can remember it all!" Lucy said.

Sei chuckled. "Yeah, she was pretty wasted."

"But. . . I just . . ."

Sei squeezed Lucy's hand. "You're thinking about us, aren't you? Don't worry - I would never do that to you."

"But what about," Lucy asked, "what about Lime?"

"That was different," Sei said. "I thought you were about to start dating MJ, she was interested in me, and I was trying to take my mind off of you."

"Well, don't ever do something like that again, OK?"

"I never would," Sei said, kissing Lucy's hand.

^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^

The next morning, Sei and Lucy were on the couch cuddling when Suyeon came out of the small bedroom.

"Good morning!" they said as one.

Suyeon scowled and rubbed the side of her head. "Not so loud!" She brushed her hair back away from her face and blinked at them. "I had a dream that you brushed my teeth."

"That wasn't a dream," Sei said, "and you'd better do something extra nice for Doyeon - she stayed in the bathroom and held your hair out of the toilet while you puked."

Suyeon ran her hand over her face. "And I remember trying to grab Elly's phone? And Rina's?"

Sei nodded. "That happened too."

Suyeon flopped down on the couch next to Sei. "Anything else happen that I should be aware of?"

Lucy held out her phone so Suyeon could see the headline on her screen. "JYP, Fantagio deny Moonbin/Momo rumors."

Suyeon blinked at the screen several times, as if trying to make sure it said what she thought it said. Finally, she just asked: "What? How?"

"Because your members look out for you," Sei said. Suyeon still looked confused, so she went on. "Lua called Jennie, to ask her to call Nayeon to ask her to have Momo call Yoojung. When Momo called, Yoojung told her about you - she'd been totally unaware - and Momo said she was going to deny the rumors to her label and the press, then call Moonbin to tell him that he'd better deny the rumors to his agency and to anyone else who would list, and by the way, she was breaking up with him."

"So in the space of a few hours he went from two girlfriends to none," Lucy said, "and if you even think about getting back together with him, your members will have a thing or two to say about that." Lucy stood up and loomed over Suyeon. "If you had let your members help you yesterday, rather than sneaking off and getting drunks, yesterday would have been a whole lot better and we could have helped you fix the situation and you wouldn't have a headache right now and-"

"Lucy," Doyeon interrupted as she came into the room, "is this how we treat our unnies?"

"Sorry, Suyeon-unnie," Lucy said, sitting back down by Sei again. Sei took her hand and rubbed it calmingly.

"She's right, though," Doyeon said as she sat down next to Suyeon. "As it was, dealing with the problem took us longer than it needed to, because first we had to deal with you."

Just then the apartment door opened and Elly came in.

"Good morning," Elly said, smiling brightly at them.

"You're in a particularly good mood," Suyeon said, rubbing her head.

"I got to go out for breakfast with my special someone this morning!" Elly said, smiling.

"Speaking of which, you should have some breakfast, unnie," Lucy said.

"And some water and a Tylenol," Sei chimed in.

Suyeon shook her head as she got up and headed to the kitchen. "I'm so lucky to have such great members."

Meanwhile, back in the living room, Doyeon, Sei, and Lucy were peppering Elly with questions about her special someone, to no avail.


	13. Chapter 13

Another day, another round of promos. Two fansigns, a performance at a school, and an appearance on TV. When they got back to the dorm, they were all exhausted. Suyeon went to bed right away - she was still dealing with the shock of what Moonbin had done, and despite everyone's efforts to try to get her to talk, all she wanted to do was work and sleep. Soojung and Doyeon had turned on the TV and were trying to find something to watch - normally they'd have gone to the small bedroom to hang out, but since Suyeon was in there trying to sleep, they had to hang out in either the kitchen or the living room until they were ready to sleep. Sei and Lucy were in the kitchen, making tea. Lua and Ellie were sitting by the window, where the cell reception was best, texting their significant others. Except for Suyeon, who was asleep, Rina was the only one not involved with couples activities. Sighing resignedly, Rina got dressed for bed. She grabbed her phone from the side table where she'd dropped it and went to lie down in her bed.

"Looks like another exciting night of video gaming for me," she said to herself as she flopped down and tried to beat her pillows into shape. She turned on her phone, picked a game and started playing. When that game failed to excite her, she switched to another one, then another one, then . . . in ten minutes she'd gone through half a dozen games, all without finding anything she wanted to play. Finally she tossed the phone down in the bed next to her, pulled her blanket up to her ears, and rolled over toward the wall.

She could feel sleep hovering just out of range. She could also feel a prickling behind her eyes, as if she might start crying any moment but the tears just wouldn't come. She knew what was wrong - couples. She also didn't know what to do about it. No, that wasn't right. She knew what to do about it - get herself into a couple - but she wasn't sure exactly how. Or with who. It had been almost a week since she'd asked Sei to try to set her up with Lime; she hadn't heard anything, but maybe that just meant Lime had been busy, not that she wasn't interested. Didn't it? The fact of the matter was, Rina wasn't even sure what sort of person she should look for - she liked girls, but she liked boys too. Maybe if she could find a boyish girl? Or a girlish boy? She just wasn't sure.

She started imagining different people, seeing who turned her on and who didn't. After a while of this, without her consciously deciding to, she realized she was touching herself while imaging her potential person. It felt good, though, so she kept on. And as she kept on, she realized that her thoughts kept coming back to one person: Twice's Jeongyeon. "That's just silly," she thought to herself as her hand continued its wayward exploration. "I've never even met Jeongyeon. I don't even know if she likes girls! She might be totally straight!"

Just then Rina heard the door open. She froze and listened, trying to figure out who it was.

"Oh look," she heard Lua say. "Rina's already asleep. I'll just be quiet so I don't wake her up."

It was Lua. Because of course it was Lua. Elly always fell asleep as soon as her head hit the pillow, and Lucy and Sei were up in the top bunks and couldn't see her anyway. But Lua would come to bed and just lie there, reading or texting or whatever for sometimes an hour. That was the problem with sharing a two-bedroom apartment with seven other girls - privacy just wasn't a thing, so if you wanted to take care of yourself, you'd better get cool with doing it while your roommates were asleep in the same room. But doing it while Lua was next to her awake was just too far for Rina. She just couldn't bring herself to do it. Even if she did think she could be still and quiet enough that Lua wouldn't figure out what she was doing, she just couldn't do it with Lua right there, awake and able to see her. Rina silently pulled her hands out of her pajamas, rolled further toward the wall, and tried to go to sleep.

^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^

Rina must have been tireder than she thought, because she couldn't remember being awake for very long after Lua came to bed. She did remember a couple of dreams, though. She couldn't remember all of any of them, but she was quite sure that all of them involved Jeongyeon. She felt even more frustrated than she had before she went to bed, if such a thing was possible. Looking around, she realized all of her roommates were still asleep. Moving silently, she grabbed her clothes for the day and headed for the shower.

After some time in the shower, she felt much calmer and headed to the kitchen for breakfast. She served herself a bowl of rice from the rice cooker, sprinkled furikake on top, and sat down by the window so she could look outside while she ate. Some of the apartments on the higher floors had balconies, but Weki Meki weren't senior enough to get one of those apartments yet. Rina couldn't wait until they could, though - she was looking forward to being able to go outside without having to go down three flights of stairs.

As she stared out the window and ate her rice, she found herself daydreaming about Jeongyeon. She started trying to figure out how she could meet her. ISAC was coming up soon, and that was usually a good place to meet people. On the other hand, you never could predict who you'd meet at ISAC: Depending on what events the two of you were in, you might never even see the person you wanted to meet. You could sometimes meet people in the waiting rooms at music shows, but, again, you couldn't predict who you'd meet. It depended on who was promoting a song at the same time you were and who was on the show the same night you were. And Fantagio always tried to schedule Weki Meki's comebacks at different times from Twice's comebacks - no agency wanted one of their groups competing head to head with Twice or Blackpink. So that wasn't a reliable way to meet her. Which left telephone and social media. Rina supposed she could stalk Jeongyeon's Insta until Jeongyeon decided to DM her. But that might never happen - Jeongyeon might even think she was fan pretending to be Rina! Which left telephone. Rina didn't have Jeongyeon's number, but she had the next to the next best thing: She had a member who had the phone number of one of Jeongyeon's members! Rina looked over at the small bedroom door, wishing Yoojung-unnie would wake up!

^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^

A couple of hours later, Weki Meki were walking to their practice room for dance practice. Rina managed to shuffle around in the group so that she ended up walking next Yoojung.

"Yoojung-unnie. . ." Rina began.

"What do you want Rina?" Yoojung asked.

"Who said I want something?" said Rina, trying to look hurt and almost succeeding.

Yoojung laughed. "Because you maknaes never call us 'unnie' unless you want something. So. . . what do you want?"

Rina laughed. "You caught me! Well, I was wondering when you were going to call Momo again."

"Probably not until Monday or Tuesday," Yoojung said. "Thursday through Sunday are always extra-busy for all of us." She paused and looked at Rina for a moment. "You do remember that Momo's straight, don't you?"

Rina nodded. "It's just she's the only member of Twice that someone I know really well knows, so I'm hoping. . ." Rina stopped, unsure how to say this.

"You want to know if Momo and I will fix you up with someone."

"Well, not like that, unnie," Rina said, pouting. "I was just hoping you could arrange an introduction and then the rest would be up to me."

Yoojung nodded. "And who would we be introducing you to?"

"Jyeongyeon," Rina said, a faraway, dreamy look on her face.

Yoojung laughed. "You and about 3/4 of the guys in Korea!" Doing her best to put on a serious expression, she continued. "I can't promise anything. I don't know if she's straight or not. I don't know if she's already dating somebody. I don't know if you're her type. But, even with all the things I don't know, I'll try to get you an introduction to Jyeonyeon."

"Thank you unnie!" Rina picked Yoojung up in a hug and spun around with her.

^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^

It was a good thing they were reviewing old choreography, because Elly's mind wasn't really on her dancing. Instead, she was dancing on autopilot while she tried to figure out a problem. Ordinarily she'd sit down and talk with one of her members about a problem like this, but this time the members were the problem. Or what she was afraid they might think or do, at any rate.

Elly knew that the time was coming when there'd be no other choice - she'd had to introduce her boyfriend to her members. And she wanted to introduce him to her members - she was proud of him and wanted to show him off (to the very limited extent that someone under a dating ban could show off their boyfriend). But there was, first of all, the fact that most of her members were gay, and some of them somewhat hostile to males - and even the one that she knew for sure was straight didn't think well of guys, thanks to Moonbin. Then, to really complicate things, there was the fact that her boyfriend was older than her. Like, quite a bit older. Okay, seventeen years older, if you want to be all precise and into numbers. Which Elly wasn't - didn't want to be. She knew that if they ever got found out about the two of them, the age gap would be the biggest part of the scandal.

But Elly didn't care about that. She cared that he was sweet, and he was kind to her. He always wore the bracelet she gave him - not so much because he liked the bracelet as because he knew she liked to see it on him. When they walked down the street together, he made her feel protected, like nothing and no one could bother her. But how could she get them to see that? They'd look at him and see his age and they'd judge him based on that before they got to know him.

Or maybe not, she thought hopefully. Maybe she could prepare them well enough that they wouldn't be surprised by his age, that it'd be just as much of a non-issue for them as it was for Elly. (She knew it was an issue for him sometimes, though: He'd ask her why she wanted to date an old man like him, or he'd start talking about something that happened earlier in his career, then stop suddenly once he realized that the events he was talking about had taken place before she started elementary school. She'd do her best to reassure him, and soon he'd be his usual self again, but she could tell he never felt entirely confident that she wouldn't one day decide to leave him for someone closer to her own age.)

But at any rate, whatever she was going to do, she was going to have to do it quickly. Her members were getting more and more impatient to meet her boyfriend (Doyeon had taken Elly's defense of men as a definitive clue, and the others had followed her lead).

Finally, Elly decided she'd had it with playing things safe. During one of their breaks, she texted him a couple of questions. By the end of dance practice, she had his answers. So after dance practice, as they were walking down the hall to the conference room where they had to sign a couple of hundred albums, she said "We're having dinner tonight at Lee's American Diner, my treat. There's someone I want you to meet." They were in the middle of their agency's offices, so they couldn't ask her a million questions like she could tell they wanted to. She could practically feel their curiosity getting more and more intense. She hoped that this would work in her favor.


	14. Chapter 14

The members of Weki Meki were sitting in an unused conference room, signing CD booklets. They'd been at it for an hour already, and the stacks of booklets left to go didn't seem to be getting any smaller. Elly stopped signing for a moment to rub her hand where it was starting to cramp up. A lull fell over the conversation and Elly decided it was time to start laying the groundwork for tonight's dinner. She put a thoughtful, somewhat confused expression on her face, and asked "So. . . kind of related to the 'what's your ideal type?' question that interviewers always ask us, what do you think of the half your age plus seven rule?"

"The what?" Lucy asked. Looking around for support, she added "Am I the only one who doesn't know what she's talking about?"

"Apparently so!" Doyeon said with a laugh.

Suyeon volunteered to explain the rule to Lucy, "The rule is that the youngest person you're allowed to date is someone half your age plus seven."

Lucy still looked confused - math had never been her strong suit. "I don't get it."

Suyeon pressed bravely on. "Suppose you were thirty. Half of thirty is fifteen, plus seven is twenty-two. So if you're 30 years old, the youngest person you should be dating is someone who's 22."

"So. . ." Lucy paused for a second, mentally scrolling through her mental stores of K-drama trivia, "sort of like Yoo Seung Ho and Park Min Young in Remember?"

Rina scowled at her. "Why did you have to bring up that show as your example? I still get sad thinking about the ending of it!"

Elly saw a chance to steer things in her favor. "What about Ji Sung and Lee Hyeri in Entertainer? I thought they made a cute couple!" And as if happened, they had an age gap almost exactly the same as hers with her boyfriend.

"But he was so old!" Rina exclaimed.

"Well, he was," Doyeon said, looking slyly at Elly, "but he was handsome, and kind, and seemed to really care for her."

Yoojung looked up from the booklet she was signing. "He could manage my career any day!" she said with a laugh. She and Doyeon exchanged high-fives over this.

Except for Rina - whose resistance was perhaps to be expected, given her age - the group seemed to be in agreement that Ji Sung and Lee Hyeri made a good couple. The conversation then veered off into other drama couples, and whose relationship worked and who they just could never believe they'd be together. Elly knew she couldn't get the conversation back to age gaps without seeming suspicious, but she hoped that she'd planted some ideas. At the very least, from the looks Doyeon was giving her, she knew that at least one of her members was figuring things out.

^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^

When they got to Lee's American, the hostess recognized Elly right away and led the group to the upstairs private dining room. Elly went in first, and was pleased to see that he was already there. She quickly crossed the room to him and exchanged a quick hug before turning back to face her members. "Everyone," she said, her heart in her throat, "I'd like you to meet--"

At this point Lucy had just entered the room and was unable to stop herself from bursting out. "K.Will-oppa?" Sidestepping her other members, she moved to the front of the group and stood in front of him. "It's an honor to meet you!" she exclaimed, bowing deeply. She turned to Elly: "Are we going to sing a duet with K.Will-oppa?" She turned back to K.Will: "Are you going to write a song for us?"

Finally Doyeon and Suyeon were able to grab Lucy by the arms and pull her back into the group. "Just let Elly-unnie talk," Sei whispered in her ear.

Elly laughed - Lucy's impetuousness had certainly broken the ice. "As Lucy has correctly identified, this is K.Will. I dont know if we're ever going to sing a duet for him or have him write a song for us - that's between our agency and his. No, I brought K.Will here to meet all of you because he's--"

"He's your boyrfriend!" Lucy burst out, earning an elbow in the ribs from Doyeon.

"Yes, Lucy," Elly said with a laugh. "He's my boyfriend." 

Elly began introducing K.Will to all her members, starting with Suyeon. By the time she got to Lucy, apparently Doyeon had been saying something to her, because Lucy bowed and said "I'm sorry, Elly-unnie. I hope I didn't spoil your surprise."

Before Elly had a chance to respond, K.Will said "I think Elly will agree with me that your excitement only made the day better. I'm very happy to finally meet you." He turned slightly, to include all the members in his gaze. "To finally meet all of you. Elly's told me so much about you."

Just then the waitress came in with a stack of menus. She looked to K.Will to see where to seat everyone at the big round table. K.Will made sure Elly was sitting next to him on one side and Lucy on the other. He made sure Sei was sitting on Lucy's other side, and made sure to seat Yoojung and Doyeon next to each other - Elly was pleased to see that he'd obviously been paying attention to and remembering all things she told him about her members.

Lucy grabbed the pitcher of water from the center of the table and turned to K.Will. "May I pour you a drink, K.Will-oppa?" He graciously accepted, and Lucy put the pitcher back. She was doing a good job of acting calm, but anyone who knew her could look in her eyes and see how excited she was. There were very, very few people in the world of K-pop who still qualified as "celebrities" in Lucy's eyes, but K.Will was definitely one of them.

As the evening progressed, Elly was pleased to see that it went well. They passed through all the obligatory milestones of introducing a new boyfriend to one's friends: The telling of the "how we met" story, the obligatory question and answer session, and then everyone gradually starting to get comfortable, getting used to the idea of him being part of their social circle.

"I can see now why you kept him a secret," Suyeon said. "If word got out that you two are dating, the scandal would be huge."

K.Will nodded. "After seeing what a big deal was made over the age difference between Hyuna and E'Dawn, it's obvious Korea's not ready for us yet. It would probably end both of our careers." He reached out and took Elly's hand. "So that is why Elly has kept me a secret from you until now, and why I must ask all of you for your help in continuing to keep this secret." After everyone had assured him that of course they would, Elly was visibly calmer, and her being calm seemed to help relax K.Will, who insisted that after they had all finished eating, they stay and sing karaoke for a while.

Toward the end of the evening, Lucy sat down by K.Will and asked "Oppa, do you think we could-" and then leaned over and whispered the rest in his ear as he smiled and nodded.

"We can do that," he said, "but then you've got to-" and he leaned over and whispered the rest in her ear. Her eyes got huge.

"Really?" she asked. "You want me to do that? I. . . I don't know what to say. Thank you! I'd be honored!"

When it was their turn to sing, K.Will went to the controls of the machine and programmed two songs to play back-to-back. "Lucy and I have arranged a surprise for you. First, at her suggestion, she and I will sing a duet, then at my request, she will sing a song for you by herself."

K.Will and Lucy moved to the front of the room and stood back to back, each facing their girlfriend. The music began and they both started singing, their voices harmonizing sweetly: "Wise men say, only fools rush in, but I can't help, falling in love with you."

Once the classic Elvis song ended, K.Will took a seat next to Elly and waited with everyone else for the next song to begin. 

Even before Lucy got to the first line ("Goyohan nae bange, nuga deureowassnayo"), Elly recognized K.Will's new single "My Star." She leaned over to him and asked "You asked her to sing this?" He nodded. "She's got a good voice. Plus, I thought it would thrill her." "Well, you're absolutely right," Elly said, grabbing his arm and leaning her head on his shoulder, "She'll be talking about this for weeks." She fell silent as Lucy began to sing. At the end of the song, everyone cheered and applauded, K.Will the most enthusiastically of all.

^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^

When Weki Meki's curfew was drawing near, he had the waitress order a pair of taxis to take them back to the dorm. "I wish I could walk you back myself," he said to Elly, "but at least I can do this."

She looked around to be sure none of her members were looking at them, then leaned forward and kissed him quickly. "We could have just walked home, you know," she said.

He nodded. "I know. But if something had happened to you - any of you - on the way, I never would forgive myself for not preventing it. I can't always protect you, so please, let me protect you when I can." Elly hugged him tightly, and he wrapped his arms around her.

When the waitress came up to tell them the cars had arrived, K.Will wished her could walk them down to the cars, but knew they couldn't be seen together yet. "Someday," he said.

She nodded. "Someday."

^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^

When they got back to the dorm, Suyeon insisted they all go to bed right away. "We've got a big day tomorrow, including two television appearances, so we all need to be fully rested."

There was a little initial grumbling about this, but it was mixed with enough yawning that they finally all agreed she was right. 

As she was getting ready for bed, Elly realized she could still smell K.Will's cologne on her. She sighed quietly and climbed into the shower. By the time she'd finished scrubbing, all trace of his scent had been eradicated. She brushed her teeth and went to bed. As she was getting settled in, Rina leaned over to talk to her.

"Thank you for introducing us to him," she said.

Elly smiled weakly, wishing - not for the first time - that her relationship didn't have to be kept a secret. "You're welcome. I wish I didn't have to hide that I'm dating him - I wish I could have told you all long ago."

"Well, you told us now," Rina said, laying her hand on Elly's arm. "I think you two are so cute together! The world is totally missing out on an awesome couple."

Elly's smile gained strength. "I think so too," she said, "but someday. . ."

^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^

As usual, Sei and Lucy were the first ones up. They walked hand in hand to the kitchen and started making breakfast.

"You know what's the bad part, though?" Lucy was saying. "I sang a duet with K.Will last night, and I can't tell anyone, and even if I did, they wouldn't believe me."

Sei laughed. "Just imagine how Elly feels, then. She's dating K.Will and can't tell anyone."

Lucy's face fell. "I know. It's like something out of a drama."

"But at least she got to see him for a couple of hours yesterday," Sei said, trying to lift Lucy's suddenly-dampened spirits. "And we know they text a lot."

"That's true," Lucy said, "but I just can't imagine. I can't imagine only getting to see you for a little while every month or two."

Sei noticed the tears welling up in Lucy's eyes. "Lucy, no crying," she said, "Elly needs all of us to be happy for her. I'm sure she's got plenty of sadness, without us adding more."

Lucy wiped her eyes with the back of her hand and stood up a little straighter. "I'm just so impressed that she's able to do it."

Sei nodded. Just then the kettle whistled and Lucy made them both cups of tea while Sei boiled some eggs.

"Now. . . " Lucy said, as sat down to eat, "what can we do to help Suyeon? And Rina?"

Sei shook her head firmly. "Nothing. Remember what happened when we weren't together yet and the unnies tried messing around with our relationship?"


	15. Chapter 15

Elly, Rina, Sei, and Lucy were getting ready to go play soccer when Yoojung came up to them.

"Sorry to break up the game," she said, "but I need to take Rina away from you."

Looking confusedly around, Rina tossed the soccer ball to Lucy and went over to stand by Yoojung. "What's going on?" she asked.

Yoojung pulled her hands out from behind her back, revealing that she was holding a black beret, which she popped onto Rina's head and then adjusted to a jaunty angle. "There," she said. "Now you've got just enough time to get down to Cafe Americano."

"What's going on? What is this?" Rina asked again, looking no less confused.

"This," Yoojung said, grabbing Rina's purse and phone and pressing them into her hands, "would be a blind date. You'll wait for Jeongyeon at Cafe Americano, and she'll recognize you by the beret."

"Thank you, unnie," Rina said. "Do I look okay?"

"Just go," Yoojung said, "you dress well enough for a game of soccer that you're ready to go. You've even got makeup on. Now hurry and get down there before she gets there and you're not there."

"Right," Rina said. She ducked forward and kissed Youjung on the cheek. "Thanks, unnie." And she turned and ran out the door.

Elly reached over and closed the door, which Rina had left open in her haste. "So, do you think she's got a good chance?" she asked Yoojung.

"Oh yeah," Yoojujng said, nodding vigorously. "According to Momo, Jeongyeon is totes gay, she's single and looking, and Rina is just her type."

"Yes!" Lucy jumped up and down and clapped her hands. "Oh, yay! I'm so excited for her."

"Don't get your hopes too high," Sei warned her. "Just before we think they'd be perfect for each other doesn't mean they'll agree."

"Well, while we're waiting to find out how it went, there's still the matter of our game of soccer."

"But, your teammate's gone," Sei pointed out.

"Doesn't matter," Elly said, dropping her arm around Yoojung's shoulder. "Since Yoojung's responsible for Rina not being here, she can take her place."

"But," Yoojung sputtered, "but- but- I'm not as good at soccer as Rina is."

Elly looked at Yoojung. "You are kind of short," she said, as if noticing this fact for the first time, "so I'm sure Sei and Lucy won't mind spotting us half a point." She looked at Sei and raised her eyebrows. Sei exchanged looks with Lucy, then nodded.

"Oh, and by the way," Elly said to Yoojung as she led her over to get her shoes, "no pressure or anything, but we've each got a night of dishes riding on this game."

"And you're sure you want me as your teammate?" Yoojung asked.

Elly nodded. "Yeah, I so. I think you're better than you give yourself credit for, and a 2 on 2 game will really give you a chance to shine."

Yoojung finished tying her shoes and stood up. "Well, I guess we'll find out. Let's go!"

^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^

Jeongyeon stopped just inside the door of Cafe Americano, looking at the blonde in the black beret who was waiting at the counter. She shook her head. Not really her type. Still, since Momo had gone to all the trouble of setting up this blind date for her, she figured she'd better at least give her a chance. She walked up and tapped her on the shoulder. "Lina?"

Startled, the blonde turned around quickly. "I'm sorry," she said, "you must have me confused with someone else."

"Oh- um- sorry," Jeongyeon said, backing up and looking around the cafe again. Suddenly she heard a voice calling her name and she spun around. The voice apparently belonged to a petite brunette in a black beret. Now this is more like it, she thought to herself. It shouldn't be possible to look this glamorous and this sporty at the same time, but somehow this girl pulled it off.

"Hi," Jeongyeon said, waving shyly as she crossed the room.

The brunette hopped up from the stool she was sitting on and bowed to Jeongyeon. "Hi," she said, "I'm Rina!"

"Oh!" Jeongyeon gasped. "Rina! I thought I was supposed to be looking for someone name 'Lina'! Apparently Momo still hasn't gotten the hang of Korean R's." She stopped and bowed to Rina. "Hi! I'm Jeongyeon."

As they sat down at the table, Rina pointed at a glass in front of Jeongyeon. "I bought you a coffee. I hope you like it. It's an iced mocha."

"That's my favorite," Jeongyeon said, taking a sip. As she put the glass down, she looked at Rina and narrowed her eyes. "Why do I get the feeling," she said, "that you know more about me than I know about you?"

Rina was silent for a moment while a blush spread over her face. "I. . . um- well. . . I asked one of my members to talk to Momo to try to arrange to introduce me to you. I had no idea they'd set us up on a blind date." She paused. "I hope you're not mad," she added quietly.

Jeongyeon choked on her coffee. "Mad?" She looked incredulously at Rina. "On the contrary, I was just thinking I'd need to stop on the way home and buy Momo a jokbal as a thank you present." She looked at Rina and suddenly a look of recognition spread over her face. "You're Rina from Weki Meki! You're that Rina! Oh my God! I love your videos!" Jeongyeon suddenly realized how loud she was talking. "So much for playing it cool and being inconspicuous," she said. "We'd better go someplace else."

Rina nodded. "Let's go," she said. "Do you want to go to the park?"

"Sure," Jeongyeon said as they headed out the door. "How do you feel about boats?"

"Boats?" Rina asked, looking confused.

Jeongyeon nodded. "Boats. There's a place in the park that rents rowboats, and I've always thought that would be a great thing to do on a date."

"Sure," Rina said, "that sounds great. Only I don't know how to row."

"Don't worry," Jeongyeon said, "I know how." She took Rina's hand and led the way. As they walked through the park, chatting about this and that, Jeongyeon became very aware of how much taller she was than Rina. She smiled - whenever interviewers asked about her ideal type, she always told the truth, but left out the parts that made it clear she was looking for a girl. She did want someone who could make her feel comfortable, and would love if it they were someone who was funny and could amuse her. But she also wanted someone glamorous and someone shorter than her. It was kind of funny - even though she was the youngest of her siblings, she liked situations where she felt like she was the one in charge, and she liked the idea of someone who depended on her. Not someone needy and clingy - that would be gross - but someone who was okay with Jeongyeon being the dominant one - not like "whips and chains" dominant, but like - and suddenly she realized that Rina had just asked her a question and was waiting for an answer. Crap! She'd just met this girl who's just perfect and she was going to mess it up by not paying attention! "I'm so sorry," she said, "I was focused on making sure we were going the right way, so I missed what you were saying."

"Oh, that's okay," Rina said, "I was just chattering. I had asked if you knew how to play soccer."

Jeongyeon shook her head. "Not really. I played some when I was in elementary school, but as soon as I decided I wanted to be an idol, my mom put me in singing lessons and dance lessons, so I never had time for sports."

"That's okay," Rina said, "I can teach you - you can't possibly be worse than Yoojung - and maybe you could teach me how to row a boat."

"But what if I just want you to sit in the boat and look beautiful?" Jeongyeon asked, teasing.

Rina snatched her hand away from Jeongyeon. "Really?" she asked. "You think just before I like makeup and pretty clothes that I can't like sports too?"

"Oh no, no!" Jeongyeon said, holding up her hands placatingly. "I was just joking with you - and apparently doing a really bad job of it. No, I totally get where you're coming from. I get it the other way around - just because I've got short hair, people think I can't like pretty things."

Rina stopped and looked up at Jeongyeon. "It's going to take me some time to get used to you," she said. "I hope you'll give me the time."

"You can have all the time you want," Jeongyeon thought, "so long as you spend it with me." But obviously it would never do to say that - she'd scare her away! "Oooh!" she thought. "I wish I could be a smooth talker like Nayeon! I really like this girl, and I don't want to screw it up!"

Jeongyeon gestured ahead of them, indicating they had reached the boat rental shop. "We could start with the boat ride, if you still want to do that."

Rina recaptured Jeongyeon's hand. "Of course I want to!" she said. Looking at the selection of rowboats for rent, she asked "Do they let you choose which boat you want?"

"I've never tried," Jeongyeon said. "Why? Is there one particular boat that's caught your eyes?"

"Ye-" Rina started to say, then stopped herself and said "No, it's silly. Any boat will be fine."

Jeongyeon looked down at Rina and raised one eyebrow. "You were about to say yes just then. Which boat was it? I promise not to laugh."

Rina blushed. "That one," she said, pointing to a pink boat with red and white accents.

"The Lovely Lady," Jeongyeon said, reading the name off the boat's stern. She smiled at Rina. "Sounds perfect. Just stay right here and I'll go rent the boat." She turned and headed toward the shop, but after just a couple of steps she stopped and turned around. "Don't go anywhere!" she said.

"I'll be right here," Rina said, pointing at the ground under her feet. Inside she was thinking "As if anything could get me to leave!" She watched Jeongyeon walk into the boat shop, taking advantage of the chance to look her over from head to toe. She thought that as beautiful as Jyeongyeon was in Twice's videos and on television, in real life she was even prettier. She blushed again, feeling silly. "Is this what it's like," she wondered, "to get exactly what you wanted?"

^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^

Suyeon was sitting on the couch listening to music when Elly and Yoojung came in from the soccer game. "How was the game?" she asked. "Who won?"

Elly grabbed Yoojung's hand and raised it over her head. She and Yoojung started singing "We Are the Champions" and kept it up as they headed for the shower.

Just then Sei and Lucy came in, mud-spattered and bedraggled. They sat down on the doormat to take off their shoes and wait for Elly and Yoojung to be done with the showers.

"Was it really that bad?" Suyeon asked.

"Bad?" Lucy exclaimed, "they convinced us to spot them half a point, and then Yoojung picks today to reveal she has some sort of soccer superpower she's never told us about! They could have spotted us five points and they still would have won!"

Suyeon laughed. "Aren't you glad it was only one night's dishes riding on the game then?"

Sei nodded, then leaned forward and rested her forehead on her knee. "The game was fun, even though I don't think I've ever been beaten quite that badly at soccer."

Just then Suyeon's phone beeped. She looked and saw it was a text from Rina. "Hey guys," Suyeon said excitedly, "Rina wants to know if one of us can take her turn at cooking dinner tonight, because if all goes well she won't be home in time."

"Tell her I'll do it!" Lucy said, her face lighting up with excitement.

"Cupid's little helper," Sei said, laughing. Lucy glared at her. "Okay," Sei said, "I'll help too. Tell Rina not to worry about us."

"I already told her," Suyeon said. "I was going to do it, but since you two volunteered. . ."

"We've got this." Lucy said emphatically. "Maknaes have to look out for each other." She and Sei bumped fists.

Just then Lua walked in, having spent the day who knows where, likely with Jennie. "Hey everybody! What's going on?"

Lucy started talking a mile a minute. "Apparently Yoojung and Momo did some sort of magic, because they were able to get Rina and Jeongyeon set up on a blind date, and apparently it's going well because Rina's not going to be home in time to cook dinner, so Sei and I are making pan-fried tofu, as soon as we can get a shower, but we can't until Yoojung and Elly get out of the showers, and did you know that Yoojung kicks ass at soccer?" When she finally stopped to take a breath, Lua was able to process everything she'd just said.

"Wow," she said. "First time all month I go anywhere and everything happens while I'm gone!"

"So how'd your day go?" Sei asked. "How's Jennie?"

"She's okay," Lua said, going to the fridge to get some water. "She's a little worried about her seniors who are caught up in the Burning Sun scandal, but other than that she's fine."

"So all those rumors about a video of Jennie?" Suyeon asked before she had time to think about what she was saying.

"Totally. Not. True," Lua said, looking coldly at Suyeon. "Now, if you're quite done insulting my girlfriend, I'm going to my room until dinner."

"Way to go, Suyeon," Lucy said as she put her shoes and Sei's in the shoe rack. "Could you have been any more offensive?"

Suyeon looked to Sei for support. Seeing none, she turned back to Lucy. "I was just. . . you know. . . you hear all the rumors, and it could have been true."

"Stop talking. You're just making it worse," Sei said.

Suyeon stopped and looked down at the floor. "I didn't mean anything by it," she said quietly. She started to get up. "I should go apologize."

"Not right now," Lucy said. "Go take a walk, we'll talk to Lua, and hopefully you can apologize to her at dinner."

"Thanks Lucy," Suyeon said. She started to hug Lucy, noticed the mud all over her, and stopped herself. Slipping on her shoes, she headed for the door. "So. . . be back at 6 for dinner?"

Sei and Lucy looked at each other and shrugged. "Six-ish," Sei said, "and if you have a choice between being early or being late, be late."

Suyeon nodded. "Thanks again," she called out as she shut the door.

"So. . . what do we do now?" Sei asked Lucy.

Elly happened to walk in from the bathroom at just that time. "You go get a shower before you track mud all over the place," she said as she flopped down on the couch. "Unless there's been some crisis that developed while I was showering."

"Just Suyeon being Suyeon," Sei said as she headed toward the bathroom. "You tell her," she said to Lucy.

So Lucy told Elly about the conversation between Suyeon and Lua - and about halfway through, Yoojung came out of the shower and she had to start over. "So that's where things stand," she finished. "We were hoping that if we get Suyeon out of the way, we could talk to Lua and maybe calm her down enough that she'd be willing to accept Suyeon's apology over dinner."

"Sounds like a good enough plan," she said. "You go get your shower. I'll go talk to Lua."

"Do you want me to come with you?" Yoojung asked.

Elly shook her head. "If I go talk to her, it's a roommate expressing concern. If you and I both go, it's a mass intervention of unnies and could backfire."

Yoojung leaned into the couch, piling up cushions around herself as she grabbed her phone. "Okay then. You go do that, I'll stay here and text Doyeon, find out when she's coming home."


	16. Chapter 16

"Really, Suyeon means well," Elly was saying as she and Lua came into the living room, "it's just sometimes she speaks before she thinks."

Lua nodded.  "I know.  It's just - that she could even consider the idea that those rumors about Jennie are true. . . she made me so mad."

Elly sat down on the couch and pulled Lua down next to her.  "That's perfectly understandable.  But keep in mind that some of our seniors have been in situations like that.  Hell, some of the girls in our generation are in situations like that right now.  I can't say who, but I'm sure you've heard the rumors."

Lua shook her head.  "But I've heard those same rumors about us, and I know they're not true."

"Just because some of the rumors aren't true, doesn't mean all of them aren't.  I-"

Just then the door opened and Doyeon and Suyeon walked in.

"I'm going to see if Sei and Lucy need any help," Elly said, quickly turning away from whatever she had been about to say.  She waved at Suyeon and Doyeon on her way to the kitchen.

"And I'm going to go see what Yoojung is up to," Doyeon said, heading off to the small room.

And just like that, Suyeon and Lua were left alone in the living room.  While Lua stared directly into Suyeon's face, Suyeon had difficulty meeting her eyes.  Suyeon sat down at the far end of the couch from Lua and turned toward her, her hands clasped in her lap.

"I'm sorry for what I said about Jennie," Suyeon said, her voice barely audible.  "I wasn't thinking about what I was saying and how insulting I was being.  I'm sorry."

Lua sat quiet for a moment, choosing her words carefully.  "I'm still angry at you, Suyeon, and I'm not going to pretend that I'm not.  If you can feel that way about the woman I love, then in a way, you're feeling that about me."  Lua sniffled as tears began to run down her face.  "Is that what you think of me, Suyeon?"

Suyeon slid across the couch and embraced Lua.  "No, no, no no no nononono.  That's not what I think at all.  I was just being stupid, you know?  I mean, I dated Moonbin while he cheated on me for six months, so obviously I'm not the best at relationships.  I'm so sorry I hurt you!"

Lua looked up at Suyeon.  "These last few months, listening to all the things people have been saying about Jennie when I couldn't speak up to defend her, have been the hardest thing ever.  Then to come into our apartment, one of the few places in the whole world I thought I would be safe from that, and to have you say those things, it was just. . ."  She broke down crying again, as Suyeon sat there and tried to comfort her.

"Dinner's ready!" Lucy called out as she came out of the kitchen.  She stopped short when she saw Suyeon and Lua on the couch.  "Or. . . you know. . . pan-friend tofu is good cold, too."  She started slowly backing out of the living room.

Lua shook her head.  "No it's not."  She sniffled.  "Thanks for trying to make me feel better, everyone.  Let's go eat."  She grabbed a handful of Kleenex and started wiping her face.  Suyeon gave her and hug and then stood up, extending her hand to help Lua up.

When they were all gathered around the table, Elly said.  "Everyone, let's thank Sei and Lucy for tonight's dinner.  Because they volunteered to cook, we've got this delicious food, and because they lost this afternoon's soccer game, they'll be taking care of the dishes as well.

Sei and Lucy blushed as everyone cheered for them.  Under the table, Lucy reached over and took Sei's hand.

* * *

Curfew had come and gone, hours ago.  Suyeon was pacing back and forth, fuming.  From her seat on the couch, Doyeon said "Why don't you go ahead and go to bed?  I can take care of Rina when she gets in."

Suyeon paused for a moment, unsure if she should take Doyeon up on this offer, or if she should stay up and deal with Rina herself, prove that she could be good leader despite the afternoon's fiasco with Lua.  Finally an unsuppressible yawn settled the question for her.  "Thanks, Doyeon," she said, patting Doyeon on the shoulder on her way to the small bedroom.  "I owe you one."

"Not as big as the one Rina owes me," Doyeon mumbled to herself as she crossed her arms and settled in for what could be a very long wait.

Forty-five minutes later, Rina still wasn't back.  Doyeon was starting to nod off when she heard a door open behind her.  She looked around and saw Lua coming out of the big bedroom.  She flopped down on the couch next to Doyeon and leaned against her.

"What's wrong?" Doyeon asked.

Lua sighed.  "I don't know.  I'm still upset about what Suyeon said this afternoon.  I know I've got to let it go, but I just can't.  I'm trying to sleep and I'm lying there tossing and turning, hearing her voice echoing in my head."

Doyeon shifted around and put her arm around Lua.  "It's understandable to be upset about something like that.  But, you know, Suyeon's just Suyeon.  Sometimes she says stupid things because she doesn't think before she talks.  I really don't think she meant to hurt you with anything she said.  Can you think of anything she could say or do that might make things better now?"

As the silence stretched out, Doyeon craned her head around and saw that Lua had fallen asleep.  Wriggling her arm free, she grabbed a throw from the end of the couch and wrapped it around Lua, who promptly laid down and put her head in Doyeon's lap.  Doyeon tried to move her, but Lua was sound asleep and couldn't be shifted.  Doyeon sighed and got as comfortable as she could - what had started out to be a long night had just gotten that much longer.

Doyeon watched the clock, waiting for Rina to get in.  After a while, she noticed that the clock was skipping numbers - apparently she was taking micronaps as her body tried to get some sleep.  Sliding out from under Lua, she went to the kitchen and made a cup of tea to help her stay awake.  Her tea had just finished steeping when she heard the apartment door open.  Normally Rina walked gracefully and quietly, so Doyeon was surprised at how much noise she was making, blundering into chairs, knocking things over.  She tiptoed into the living room, felt around for the lightswitch and turned it on.  The lights temporarily blinded both of them, used as they were to the dark.  Finally Rina was able to squint enough to see Doyeon.

"Hi unnie," she said, her voice a little louder than normal.  "Sorry I'm a little bit late.  I was out with Jeongyeon."

"A little late?  A little?  You're -" she looked at the clock - "almost 4 hours late.  We've got to be up for promos in 4 hours!"  Doyeon took a moment to take in Rina's appearance.  Her shirt had obviously been unbuttoned at some point while she was out, because not it had been rebuttoned crooked.  Her lipstick was smeared, which is totally out of character for Rina.  And what was that?  Three quick steps carried Doyeon across the room.  She grabbed Rina's head and turned it to the side, letting the light shine on her neck.  "You let her give you a hickey?"  Doyeon whistled softly.  "And a really prize-winner too - that's going to be a bitch to cover up with makeup tomorrow."

Rina wrench her head out of Doyeon's grasp and shaded her eyes with her hand.  "Please, unnie.  Can we talk about this tomorrow?  I'm tired and my head's starting to hurt and I probably had a little too much to drink."

"You'll be going to bed in just a minute," Doyeon said, but first you need to come with me.  Taking Rina's hand, she led her into the kitchen.  She made Rina drink two big glasses of water and take a couple of Tylenol.  Then she marched Rina into the bathroom and made her take off all her makeup and clean her face before going to bed.  "The last thing you need," she said, "is to have an acne breakout because you didn't clean your face thoroughly.  That'll just call attention to you and make it more likely that someone will see your hickey.  Which you'd better hope Sei has some ideas for how to cover this up, because seeing it in the light, I have no idea what we can use that will stay on all day."

"All right, unnie, I get it.  I screwed up," Rina whined as she headed for her bedroom, shedding clothes as she went.  "Can't you just be happy for me that I had a good day with Jeongyeon?  We went boating around the lake, then we went out for dinner, then she took me to a secret nightclub where we drank and listened to a jazz band.  And she kissed me!  So many times!    I think she loves me."

Doyeon shook her head.  "That's just. . . yeah, that's great.  We can talk about it all you want after tomorrow's promotions.  Right now you've got to get some sleep."

But Rina had already fallen asleep, lying crossways on her bed.  Doyeon rolled her eyes and helped Rina get straightened out and covered with her blanket.  Then, stopping on the way to turn out the living room light and check on Lua, she made her way to her own bed.

* * *

Doyeon woke up to the shrill beeping of her alarm.  She hit snooze and rolled over, but couldn't get back to sleep with all the noise her bandmates were making.  Sighing, she got up, put on her robe, and headed for the kitchen to get some breakfast.  All the other members of Weki Meki were apparently already there, listening to Rina tell about her date with Jeongyeon.  Doyeon tried to tune them out as she started making herself a cup of tea.  She glared at Rina.  It wasn't fair - Rina had been the one out drinking half the night and Doyeon was the one with a headache.  Dry-swallowing a couple of Tylenol, she pulled the teabag out of her cup and downed half her tea in one gulp.

"So then after we left the club," Rina was saying, "Jeongyeon hired a black car to take me back to the dorm, and she showed me how to get into the dorm without getting caught!  And Doyeon took such good care of me when I got in - she made me drink water and take Tylenol and be sure to get all my makeup off.  Life is so great!"

"We'll see if you still feel that way after all today's promos," Suyeon said.  

"Anyway," Sei said, "Alice-sunbae got back to me with instructions on how to cover up your hickey, so if you're done with breakfast, we can go get to work on that."

Rina drank the last of her tea.  "OK.  Let's go."

The maknaes bustled around putting their breakfast dishes in the sink and then headed for the bathroom.  Sei needed to do Rina's makeup, Lucy went along to learn how to do this in case she or Sei ever gave the other one a hickey, and Lua went along just because it was better than being in a room with Suyeon right now.

Once the maknaes were out of the kitchen, Doyeon took the rest of her tea and a bowl of rice and sat down at the table with the other unnies.

"Well," Doyeon said, "if I thought I was going to talk some sense into Rina last night, I was sadly mistaken."

"Don't worry about it," Suyeon said.  "It's not like none of us have ever stayed out after curfew."

Doyeon shook her head.  "Yeah, but four hours after?  It's only a matter of time before she does something bad enough that management takes notice, and then where will we be?"

"We'll just have to do what we can to keep her out of trouble," Elly said.

Just then, Youjung's phone beeped.  She picked it up and looked at it.  "It's Jeongyeon.  'Apparently I drank too much last night.  Did Rina mention anything that I need to apologize for?'"

"What are you going to tell her?" Suyeon asked.

"'Apparently not,'" Yoojung read out as she typed her response, "'she's been singing your praises all morning.'"

"Let me see your phone," Suyeon said, reaching for it.  Once she had her hands on it, she started typing.  "'Hi, it's Suyeon.  Rina didn't get back until 4 hours past curfew last night!  Please try to get her in on time!"

Yoojung reclaimed her phone, which beeped just a few seconds later.  "'OMG, it was that late?  I was having such a great time with her I totally lost track of time.'"

Tell her we've got promos today and have to go," Suyeon said, "and make sure she's got Rina's number, unless you want all their communication to go through you."

"Good point," Yoojung said, typing furiously.

Just then Sei ushered Rina into the kitchen.  "How'd I do?" she asked, gesturing toward Rina's neck.

"I can't even see it," Doyeon said.  Turning to Yoojung, she said "Make sure Jeongyeon knows about Rina's monster hickey so she can be more careful in the future."

"You got it," Yoojung said, typing.

"Ugggh," Rina groaned.  "Are you unnies going to be all up in my business?"

"When your business threatens the group, yes," Doyeon said, before Suyeon had a chance to say anything.

"OK, fine," Rina said, rolling her eyes.  "I just was so excited,  I was the last member to be a singleton - even Lucy got to date before me!"

"Well," Suyeon said, obviously trying to choose her words carefully, "I think last night more than made up for lost time, so be more careful from now on."

Rina nodded.  "Sure thing.  I've got to go get dressed for today.  You all should too."

Doyeon finished the last of her rice and put her bowl and spoon in the sink.  "I hate to admit it, but she's right.  We've got a busy day today and we need to go get ready." 


	17. Chapter 17

Even with the makeup Sei had put on her, Rina started getting paranoid about her hickey as they drove to their first event of the day.  She made Sei promise to stay on that side of her in case the makeup started to flake off.  It didn't help matters that the day's events were all close-up events:  A grand opening of a record store, lunch at a restaurant one of their seniors was opening, a podcast interview, a fansign, and then an appearance on a cooking show.

Suyeon spent the ride to the first event trying to get up the nerve to talk to Lua.  She knew she'd said absolutely the wrong thing the day before, and she wanted to try to make things right.  She just wasn't sure how to start.  Finally, when she saw they were only about 10 minutes away from their destination, she knew she had to do something now or never.  She reached up to the seat in front of her and tapped Lua on the shoulder.  Lua turned around, and as much as she tried to hide it, Suyeon couldn't help but notice the fleeting expression of disappointment that crossed her face when she saw who wanted her attention.

Suyeon took a deep breath, in hopes of getting it all out before Lua shut her down.  "Lua, I just wanted to say again that I'm sorry about yesterday.  I didn't really believe those things about Jennie, and I don't believe them about you - or any of our members!  I was just talking without thinking first, which is a bad thing to do and I'm going to try to stop."  The torrent of words finally came to a stop when she ran out of breath. 

Lua thoughtful as she considered what Suyeon had said.  After taking several calming breaths, she looked Suyeon in the eyes.  "Suyeon, I believe that you're sorry, and I accept your apology.  But it's going to take some time for me to trust you the way I did before."  She stopped and looked down, thinking.  When she raised her eyes back to Suyeon's, her eyes were glistening.  "You're still my friend, and you're still my Leader Ji, but I just wish you'd never said those things, you know?"

Suyeon leaned forward to the limit of her seatbelt and hugged Lua.  "I wish that too.  I'm so sorry for hurting you like that."

Just then they heard their manager's voice from the front of the van.  "OK girls!  Last-minute makeup checks!  We'll be there in 3 minutes."

Suyeon disengaged from Lua and looked her over.  "Believe it or not, your makeup's still okay."

Lua surveyed Suyeon.  "Yours too!"  They laughed together, the tension apparently broken for the moment.

Just then the van stopped and they could hear the Ki-Lings screaming for them outside.

"Time to go!" Suyeon said, unbuckling her seatbelt and straightening her blouse.  "Okay everybody," she said, "these Ki-Lings have probably been waiting a couple of hours for us, so let's be sure to make it worth their while."

 

* * *

 

The record store appearance went great - virtually everyone there was a Ki-Ling, so even if they had screwed up, the crowd would love them anyway.  The lunch appearance was a little more challenging.  The audience there was mostly foodies, for whom the appearance of a K-pop group was at best irrelevant, and at worst a distraction from the ramen.  So they posed for selfies and signed autographs for anyone who approached their table, but spent most of their time just sitting there eating their ramen, trying to keep the focus on the food.  They must have been doing the right thing, because Nara-sunbae stopped by their table twice to thank them for coming and to tell them what a great job they were doing. 

The cast interview was shaping up to be the worst ever.  It was for an American podcast, so that meant that they had to have a translator for the questions and their answers.  The other downside of being interviewed for an American podcast was that the host didn't know what questions to ask and what questions not to ask.  So far, pretty much every question was something a Korean interviewer would never ask about:  Their dating ban, drug use among K-pop idols, their opinions on the LGBT community, Fantagio's business operations, Korean attitudes toward mental illness.  Finally, they got to the question they'd all known was coming, but they were all dreading.  "What are your thoughts about the Burning Sun scandal?"

Lua opened her mouth to say something, but Suyeon rushed and started speaking quickly before Lua had a chance.  "We have every confidence that the investigators will find the wrongdoers and bring them to justice.  But even more important, that they'll be able to clear the names of anyone who has been wrongly implicated in this affair."

Lua smiled and nodded at Suyeon.  Doyeon raised her eyebrows, impressed that Suyeon had beem able to come up with that on the spur of the moment.

The interview seemed content with this answer and turned the interview in a different direction.  "Back to dating for a moment, and I want to ask each of you this:  If you were a guy, which of your bandmates would you want to date?  Let's start with Lucy."

Lucy's eyes got wide - she hadn't expected the question to come to her first.  So far the interview had been questions that were all better answered by her unnies, and she'd been sort of drifting along, not really paying attention.  Now she started to panic:  Should she name Sei?  Or should she name someone else to call attention away from her relationship with Sei?  She looked back and forth from Sei to Doyeon, but failed to see anything in their faces that gave her any guidance.  She even looked at Suyeon, but saw nothing helpful there either.  She was about to open her mouth and hope that the first thing that came out would be accetable when Yoojung spoke up.

"If Lucy was a guy," Yoojung was saying, totally drawing all the attention off of Lucy for the moment, "I would hope that she would date me.  Lucy is always so thoughtful, and so concerned about the feelings of others that whoever gets to date her once the ban is lifted is going to be very lucky."

Lucy looked at Yoojung and silently mouthed "Thank you!"  Jooyung smiled back.  They then watched the other members give their answers.  The big surprise was Lua selecting Suyeon:  "You never know what she's going to do, and that kind of unpredictability, combined with her good heart, would make dating her really exciting."  Lucy smiled - apparently things were okay between Lua and Suyeon again, or at least better than they were yesterday evening.

 

* * *

 

Sei helped Rina put her sardines into her tea ball - why Rina had thought it was a good idea to wear long nails on the day they were doing a cooking show remained a mystery - and they both added their anchovies to the pots of broth they were making, hooking the chains attached to the tea balls on the edge of the pots.  Then the camera was off them and back to Elly and Doyeon, who were making rice cakes - when the show's host had said they were going to make tteokbokki from scratch, she really meant from scratch.  Sei had never made her own rice cakes, and after seeing all the work that Doyeon and Elly were having put into it, she doubted she ever would.  It was much easier to just pay 3000 won for a bag of rice cakes from the refrigerator case at the corner store.

Once the cooking show was over - the tteokbokki were delicious, but none of them ever wanted to put that much work into cooking something - they all climbed into the van for the ride back to the dorm.  Sei and Lucy settled into the back corner on the passenger side.  

"So," Sei said, "Yoojung wants you to date her.  Like that's ever going to happen."  She flumped back in the seat and shook her head.

Lucy leaned over and kissed her on the nose.  "Awwww, someone's jealous!" she said, adding a couple of kisses to Sei's forehead.  "I think that's so cute."

"Yoojung and Doyeon both wanted to date you," Sei said, looking wounded.  "No one wanted to date me!  What's wrong with me?"

Lucy wrapped her arms around Sei and hugged her tightly.  "Nothing's wrong with you," she said.  "Besides, you, Lua, and Rina all wanted to date Suyeon.  What's up with that?"

Sei turned toward Lucy and nuzzled against Lucy's shoulder.  Looking up at Lucy, she said "That's why I hate that question.  It get inside your head and you spend the rest of the day wondering 'Did she really mean that, or was that just for the interview?""

"Well," Lucy said," pulling Sei closer to her, "until we're able to tell interviewers the truth, you need to know that any answer I give to that question is just for the interview.  Sometimes the answer you give to that question carries a hidden message to one of your bandmates - like Lua choosing Suyeon today - but most of the time it's just something fun to entertain the Ki-Lings.  Don't take it so seriously, okay?"

Sei nodded, but Lucy couldn't help noticing the tears glistening like stars in her eyelashes.  "Just relax," Lucy said, "we'll be home soon and you won't have to worry about all this."  Lucy leaned down kissed Sei quickly.  "And there's plenty more where that came from," she said, "and they're all for you."

Lucy couldn't see Sei's face, but she could tell she was smiling.

 

* * *

 

When they got back to the dorm, Rina joined Elly and Lua in sitting by the window, texting her special someone.

"How long 'til our next day off?" she asked.

"Eleven days," Elly said, "and then 3 days after that we get 2 days off in a row."  Elly always had Weki Meki's schedule and K-will's memorized, and could tell you at a moment's notice where time off overlapped between the two.

Rina counted off the days on her fingers.  "But that's after Twice leaves for America!  You mean I won't get to see Jeongyeon again until after she gets back from America?"

Lua nodded.  "Welcome to our world.  When Jennie showed up at our Christmas party, that was the first time I'd seen her in three months."  She looked at Elly.  "How 'bout you, Elly?  How long was your longest dry spell?"

Elly didn't even have to stop and think.  "Four and half months.  Right after we debuted."

Rina's jaw dropped.  "Three months?  Four and a half months?  You mean I'll only get to see Jeongyeon three or four times a year?"

Elly laughed softly.  "No, it's not quite as bad as all that.  During the summer is when you'll get to see her the least, but you'll get to see her a lot more during the winter, especially around New Year's."

"Besides," Lua added, "after a while the two or you will get better at carving out small bits of time to spend together, even when you don't have a day off."  A wistful smile crossed over Lua's face.  "Jenny and I once spent 6 minutes making out in a supply closet at MBC Studies."

Rina couldn't believe this.  "You did not!"

Lua nodded, smiling smugly.  "Oh yes we did!"  She accepted a high-five from Elly.

"If you're going to date someone outside our band - especially someone from another label - you're going to have to be creative."  She looked at Rina.  "And invest in a good Bluetooth headset.  You'll need it if you and Jeongyeon want to have sexytimes chats without waking up your roommates."

Rina's eyes widened.  "You mean you and K-Will?"

Elly nodded.  "Oh yeah."  She paused for a moment.  "Sometimes before your roommates go to sleep, since Lua insists on staying awake 'til all hours of the night."

"I can't help it!" Lua protested.  "Sometimes Jennie's not free until 2 in the morning!"

"Oh been there, done that," Elly commiserated.  "Especially when one of us is in another time-zone."

Rina shook her head.  "I can see I've got a lot to learn."  She looked at Elly.  "What about curfew?"

"You'd better try to obey curfew."  Elly leaned closed to Rina.  "After last night, you in particular had better try to obey curfew, if you don't want to get on Doyeon's bad side.  Still, there is a way around it.  Can you guess what it is?"

After wracking her brain, Rina was forced to admit she couldn't.

"Mornings!" Elly said with a laugh.  "Why do you think I so rarely have breakfast with the rest of the group?  I'd say 90% of my dates with K-Will are breakfast dates."

Rina yawned - just the thought of getting up at 5 in the morning was making her tired.  "I'd better get to bed," she said.  "Thank you both for all your advice here.  It looks like I'm going to have to become a morning person."

"Anytime," Lua said.  "And especially don't hesitate to ask Elly, she's like the James Bond of K-pop dating."

Elly mimed shooting a pistol.  "Welcome to the club," she said.

 

* * *

 

Doyeon came into the kitchen to find Suyeon yelling into her phone.  Well, as close to yelling as one can get without actually getting any louder - the fierceness in Suyeon's voice was unmistakable.

"Yeah, I bet you'd like that," she said.  "What the matter - finding a girlfriend not so easy now that everyone knows what a creep you are?"  A pause.  "Yeah?  You just keep telling yourself that."  Another pause.  "As if.  And don't bother trying to call back - I'm blocking your number."  

And with that, she hung up and suddenly noticed Doyeon standing next to her.  She gave a little start.  "Oh!  Doyeon!  I didn't see you there!"

"You were preoccupied," Doyeon said.  She opened the refrigerator to get a can of seltzer.  'No need to ask who that was.  Good job shutting him down.  Some of the members had been afraid you might take him back."

Suyeon scoffed.  "That weaselly little snake?  No way!  I may no be the brightest, but there are limits to my stupidity."

Doyeon reached up and stroked Suyeon's hair.  "You're not stupid!  I don't want to hear you talking about yourself that way!"

"Well what would you call it?" she asked, her eyes flashing.  "First the Lucy-Sei-Lime party fiasco, then the situation with Moonbin, then the thing with Lua yesterday - wherever there's chaos and turmoil, Suyeon's right in the middle of it!"

"Hey," Doyeon said, "the Lucy-Sei-Lime party was my idea.  And you can't feel too back about Moonbin - not only did he fool all your members, he fooled Momo and all of her members too.  You weren't unique in trusting him where you shouldn't have.  And the Lua thing?  That was just you talking before you thought thing through.  Just "Suyeon being Suyeon" as Sei calls it."

"Oh, well that makes me feel loads better," Suyeon said.  "If the maknaes think I'm an idiot, how can I be their leader?  I might as well step down and let you be the leader."

Doyeon wrapped Suyeon in a hug.  "The maknaes don't think you're an idiot - they think you're human.  And you're a much better leader than I would be - if I was the leader, I might be better at getting them not to break rules, but there's no way I could inspire them like you do."

Suyeon sniffled.  She looked at up Doyeon.  "You think so?"

Doyeon nodded.  "I really thing so."  She gestured toward Suyeon's phone.  "Now go ahead and block Moonbin's number before you forget."


	18. Chapter 18

Doyeon was sitting on the couch reading a celebrity gossip magazine.  It was the usual mix of truth, half-truths, exaggerations, and flat-out lies as usual.  None of it really made an impression on her until she spotted one particular item.  It was in one of the columns where the columnist just hinted at who the people were and what was happening, so that if they turned out to be wrong, they couldn't get in trouble for publishing falsehoods.

"Elly," Doyeon called out.  "You'd better come see this."

Elly came out of the bathroom, her makeup half-applied.  "What is it?"  Seeing what magazine Doyeon was holding, her face turned into a scowl.  "Why do you even bother with those things?"

"Because sometimes they're right," Doyeon said, holding the magazine out toward Elly and pointing to one of the paragraphs.

Elly read the paragraph, her face growing paler and paler.  When she reached the end, she said "I've got to call him" and scampered off to get her phone.

Sei had wandered in from the kitchen in time to see the end of this exchange.  "What's going on?" she asked.

She handed the magazine to Sei, who read the paragraph aloud for Lucy, who'd just followed her into the room.  "Do You Call It Romance?  Or is it just a Crush?  Who's the girl group songstress who's captured the heart of everyone's favorite balladeer?  Hopefully he won't end up Dropping the Tears and we won't end up saying 'I Don't Like Your Girlfriend.'  But he's always been so Picky, Picky that I think we'll see this Love Blossom."

Lucy scowled.  "Why does Elly get the coded column treatment and Momo and Moonbin ended up getting named on the front page?"

"It's because of K.Will," Sei explained.

Seeing the look of incomprehension on Lucy's face, Doyeon picked up the explanation.  "His first songs came out 15 years ago.  He's practically a national treasure.  A lot of ajummas are fans of his, and they'll be mad at the magazine if they publish the story and it turns out to be wrong."

"Which it won't," Lucy pointed out.

"Which it won't," Doyeon conceded.  'But that's why Elly had to call K.Will right away - so they could decide on a strategy of how to deal with this."

"What can they do?" Lucy asked.

Doyeon shrugged.  "Not much.  They'll probably pretend not to have seen the item, and if an interviewer questions them about it directly - more like with him than with her - they'll just blame it on the press needing to fill the pages, even on a slow news day, so sometimes a hunch or an idea gets blown up into a story when there's really nothing there."

Elly came back just at the end of this.  "Plus, he's about to announce that he's leaving for Japan today for an extended stay at a health spa."

Lucy got indignant.  "So he's just running away and leaving Elly to face the press alone?"

Sei did her best to calm her girlfriend down.  "No, it's not like that at all."

"The press will be coming for him a lot harder than they'll be coming for me," Elly added.  "If he hadn't already had the idea, I was going to suggest it to him."

"Plus, we need to eliminate the possibility of any encounters between them, even a chance crossing in the street.  The less that gets said about this, the sooner everyone will forget it was ever published."  Doyeon said.

Just then the front door opened and Suyeon came in.  Seeing so many of her members standing in the middle of the living room, she immediately asked "What's up?  Is something wrong?"

Doyeon showed Suyeon the magazine.  As she read it, a variety of emotions ran across her face - first confusion, then fear, then anger and determination.  "Somebody go find Yoojung, Lua, and Rina.  We've got to have an all-band meeting."

 

 

Once everyone had been gathered up and the remaining members had been brought up to date on the situation.

"We don't know exactly what this columnist knows - or thinks they know.  And since all her clues point toward the group, not to any specific member, the press will be watching all of us.  So until we're sure that all of this has blown over, no dating.  Nothing that could be misconstrued as dating.  Pretty much no socializing with anyone outside the band.  The press doesn't know what they're looking for, so they'll be happy to find anything."

Rina shrugged.  "K.Will's going to Japan, and Jeongyeon's leaving for America next week, so it shouldn't be that big a deal."

"What about Sei and Lucy?" Lua asked petulantly.

Sei opened her mouth to respond, but Doyeon started speaking before she had a chance, hopefully heading off a fight in the maknea line.  "Sei and Lucy, as well as Yoojung and me, will be making sure not to do anything couple-y in public.  In fact, we shouldn't even be alone together in public."  She looked significantly at Lucy.  "Nothing that would give anyone any clues."

Sei started taking her keys off the Gudetama keychain that Lucy had bought her.  Lucy reached out to stop her.  "You don't have to do that, do you?"

Sei kept taking the keys off the ring.  "You heard Doyeon - nothing couple-y."

Lucy's eyes filled with tears, which immediately started running down her face.  "This sucks!" Lucy yelled.  "This sucks and I hate it!  All because some ajussis in an office decided it's better for business if we don't date.  I hate it!"  Lucy rushed into the big bedroom and slammed the door behind herself.

Sei jumped up to rush after her, but Doyeon stopped her.  "No, let her calm down a little bit before you go in there."

But when the sounds didn't get any quieter, and when the crying was punctuated by a thud, Doyeon turned back to Sei.  "On second though, maybe you'd better go after her."

Sei jumped up and ran into the big bedroom, shutting the door behind herself.

"I hope Sei gets her calmed down soon," Suyeon said.  "We've got dance practice in an hour and then the maknaes have school."

Elly's face blanched.  "We have dance practice today?"

"Yes.  So?" Suyeon wasn't seen the connection.

"If we had promotions today, we'd be running all over the city," Elly explained, "but if we've got dance practice, we'll be at the Fantagio building all morning.  What if the managers decide to start interviewing us?  I'd better stay home sick today."

Doyeon shook her head vigorously.  "No way.  If you're suddenly absent, the managers will take it as an admission of guilt."

"So what do I do?" Elly asked.

Suyeon shrugged.  "You go to practice.  And if anyone asks you about it, you lie your ass off."

"Should we pretend to not have seen the story at all?" Elly asked.

Doyeon shook her head.  "No.  I'm sure management knows I subscribe to those magazines - I bet they read all of our mail! - so it wouldn't be believable for us not to have read any of them.  All we can do is play it off as the columnist being wrong.  At this point all they've shown is someone talking about this.  If they had a picture of you and K.Will that'd be different."  Elly opened her mouth to interject, but Doyeon just kept on talking.  "We can be pretty sure they don't have a photo or anything more solid, because if they had a photo, they probably would have printed it.  And they definitely would have talked to management about this - and the fact that Manager-nim's not down here yelling and screaming and getting red in the face is a pretty good sign they didn't."

"So all we can do," Suyeon added, "is lie.  'I'm not dating K.Will.  No one in Weki Meki is dating K.Will.'  Practice it in a mirror if you have to, but be able to say it convincingly."

'I hate this," Elly said, crossing her arms and folding in on herself.  "I hate being made to feel that K.Will and I are doing something that we should be ashamed of."

Almost instantly, Yoojung was sitting next to Elly, giving her a hug.  "No, you're not doing anything to be ashamed of.  Hell, you're doing something that tons of Korean girls your age would love to be doing.  But for now, you've got to keep it secret.  You know better than any of us how to do that."

Elly nodded, blinking back tears.  "I know," she said.  "I just feel like if this is happening then all our best efforts weren't good enough, so I don't know what to do."

"All you can do," Yoojung said, 'is keep doing what you've been doing.  And the fact that K.Will is out of the country will make things easier for you.  'I don't know much about K.Will, but I know enough to know that if he did get caught dating a member of a girl group, he wouldn't leave the country and leave her to face the consequences alone.'"

Elly smiled weakly.  "That's pretty good.  I'll have to remember that one."

 

 

Dance practice went off without a hitch.  In fact, they were doing so well that they decided to record a video for the Ki-Lings.  Once they'd filmed the video, they watched it to be sure they liked it and then posted it.  Then they left the studio, the maknaes headed off to school and the unnies back to the apartment.  They were almost out of the building when they heard Manager-nim's voice coming from behind them.

"Suyeon-a," Manager-nim said, "I'm sure you've heard the rumors.  We need to talk in my office."

Suyeon rolled her eyes.  "Do we have to?  We all know there's nothing to it."

"Even if there's nothing to it, we still need to talk about it,' Manager-nim said, her words sounding harsh and clipped.

Suyeon turned back to face Manager-nim, who instantly turned and started leading the way to her office.  

When they reached Manager-nim's office, she sat behind her desk and motioned for Suyeon to take one of the chairs across from her.  Suyeon watched as Manager-nim moved some stacks of paper around her desk before starting the conversation, amazed at how much power this ordinary-looking middle-aged woman had over all of them.  Manager-nim looked like a typical ajumma who'd leave her office at the end of the day and go home and fix dinner for her family.  But Suyeon knew that Manager-nim controlled when Weki Meki made a comeback, how much would be spent to promote it, which shows they'd appear on - everything.  Suyeon also knew that this delay, with the shuffling of papers, was Manager-nim's way of making sure that Suyeon was aware of who had the power in this room.  Finally, Manager-nim stapled and a stack of papers, put them on the corner of her desk, and turned to Suyeon.

"Suyeon, I need you to be honest with me:  Is anyone in Weki Meki dating K.Will?"  Manager-nim stared into Suyeon's eyes, her gaze feeling like it could see straight into her mind.

Suyeon shook her head.  "No, Manager-nim.  I mean, K.Will?  Have we ever even been on a show with him?  Besides he's practically an ajussi."

Manager-nim raised an eyebrow.  "Girls younger than you call K.Will oppa and you know it.  So I'll ask you again:  Is anyone in Weki Meki dating K.Will?"

Suyeon shook her head more vigorously.  "No."

Manager-nim looked like she wanted to believe Suyeon but wasn't sure if she should.  "If you find out that one of your members is dating, be sure to let me know.  I can help."  Manager-nim picked up a stack of papers, then stopped and looked at Suyeon appraisingly.  "Remember what I said, Suyeon-a," she said, "if any of your members is violating the dating clause - with anyone - you can let me know and I'll help, but I can't help you if I don't know."  She put the stack of papers down and leaned back in her chair.  "Anyway, you've said that no one's dating, and I feel like I can believe you.  Go have some lunch - something light, not too fattening - and I'll see you tomorrow.

And just like that, Suyeon was dismissed.  Keeping her face carefully neutral, she said good-bye to Manager-nim and left the office.  Now that Suyeon had directly lied to Manager-nim about this, the stakes were higher.  If Suyeon ratted out Elly, she knew that Manager-nim's "help" would consist of Weki Meki making a comeback with only seven members.  On the other hand, if she kept Elly's secret and got found out, Manager-nim's bosses would probably break up Weki Meki.  "The only thing to do," she thought to herself, "is make sure we don't get found out."


End file.
